The best Dog evah

Synopsis: Dog and the team head to San Francisco to catch the elusive Samu.

Should I give away the ending? Okay. Bonnie turns 6 and has a birthday party at the beach. Such a cutie patootey!

Ohhhhh, the ending to the Samu part! After 3 long years, and on the 120th day of a judge's 120-day extension, the following dialogue unfolds...

Young Blood (Tim): “If we stole seventy-five thousand dollars from your Mom wouldn't you come after us 3 years later?”
Dog: “WE CAUGHT YOU, MOTHER*bleeeeeeep*ER!!!!!!!!”
Beth: (snotty with tears) “Call the judge. Five hours to spare. CALL THE JUDGE *sniffle* and tell *gulp sniffle* him we caught Samu.”
Duane Lee: (to Samu who is locked up in the back seat of the police cruiser) “Thanks for the chase, bra.”
The swat team surrounding all suspects: (bigass scary guns pointed at the heads of people on the ground) *crickets*

This is why I love Dog.

Tales of Elyria

“In 303AD, the Roman Emperor, Diocletian began his anti-Christian campaign. Christians were ordered to participate in the imperial cults. Anyone who refused was killed. Many eastern Christians fled to the Western Empire where Christianity was still tolerated.

Elyria, a young, Celtic healer from the alpine region near the municipum of Juvavum in the Roman province of Noricum, becomes involved in hiding a group of Alexandrian Christians. When one of the group is found murdered at the entrance to the saltmines, Elyria becomes involved in the search for the killer, the discovery of who exactly she was helping to hide and thwarting the will of a living god. In order to do what she believes is right, she must trust strangers that could ultimately end her life.”

The adventure continues at Storytime.

(Vanessa, thank you for stopping by. I'm now addicted to your novel. :)

This is a beaker.

Just sayin'. Also referred to as a flick, I guess, but I've always called it a beaker. Am I the only one? Meep.

Upside-down cake: Butterfly edition

Happy birthday, silly girl! ;)

Sunday Garden

Sunday Garden has arrived.

Peachy(!):



Daffodils can be beautiful.

Meep

Oops, that last post was supposed to be published 5 hours ago but I forgotted to press “Publish”. *snort*

If I say “I beakered him” or “I beakered it” do you know what I mean? Hay did not, so apparently I've been hiding that from him for 9 years. Hmm. Something new between us! Cool.

PS - The verb beaker has nothing to do with Beaker. Or “meep”.

Le moo. vies.

Living Juicy shares the funnest memes.

Rules: Stick an asterisk (*) next to the movies you've seen.

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
The 400 Blows
8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
* Alien
All About Eve
* Annie Hall
* Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Red One
The Bicycle Thief
The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
Blowup
Blue Velvet
* Bonnie and Clyde
Breathless
Bringing Up Baby
* Carrie
* Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
Chinatown
Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
* Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
Double Indemnity
* Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
* E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial
* Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
* The Exorcist
* Fargo
* Fight Club
* Frankenstein
The General
* The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
Gone With the Wind
* GoodFellas
* The Graduate
* Halloween
A Hard Day’s Night
Intolerance
It’s a Gift
* It’s a Wonderful Life
* Jaws
The Lady Eve
Lawrence of Arabia
M
* Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
The Maltese Falcon
* The Manchurian Candidate
* Metropolis
Modern Times
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nashville
The Night of the Hunter
* Night of the Living Dead
North by Northwest
Nosferatu
On the Waterfront
Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
Pink Flamingos
* Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
Rashomon
* Rear Window
* Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
* Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
* Schindler’s List
The Searchers
The Seven Samurai
* Singin’ in the Rain
Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Boulevard
Taxi Driver
The Third Man
Tokyo Story
Touch of Evil
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
* Vertigo
* West Side Story
The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz

Looks like I have a lot of movie watching to do. I think the choices for what are great movies are weird. Where's Driving Miss Daisy?! Fried Green Tomatoes?! Close Encounters of the Third Kind?!?! Tootsie? Scrooged C'mon, at least Stripes or Caddyshack! National Lampoon's Vacation? The Color Purple!!!! ???? Animal House. The Birds. Fahrenheit 541?!?!?! Logan's Run. Back to the Future? The Dark Crystal. The Neverending Story. Aww, I give up.

Busy bee

Best In Show is such an incredible movie. But, I digress.

Happy weekend, Internets! This weekend started at mid-day today when I did a bit of light shopping and a bit of double garlic pizza consuming. Then, I came home. And the real work began. Mowing the lawn, planting huuuuuge flowerbeds with tons and tons of seed packets, feeding the wildlife, setting free our Blue Spruces from their protective plastic, then cleaning up to go inside to make dinner. Truly a whirlwind day today. Tomorrow is even moreso, which means it's bedtime for this mama.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and that you see at least one shooting star, rainbow, Leprechaun, or scary movie by Sunday at 11:59pm. (Yah, I know, that's random.)

Shhhhhhh, it's a secret!!

I'm wearing my RAWR kitty baby doll tee today. Under my sweater. (Hey, it's freakin' cold here.)



B especially cannot tell anyone. :P

A list of names I don't like being called at age 31-and-three-quarters*:

Young lady
Girl
Chick
Hun
Kid
Sweetie
Bitch

(Does this make me a Republican?)

It's a relatively short list for now, but I'm quite certain it will grow in length as I grow older. Anyone else got ageist names they want to throw out?



---
*Unless you know me, then that's okay. It's just when strangers do it that I get annoyed-slash-offended-slash-pissy-slash-etc.

Guilty conscience part 27

Does anyone else feel awkward about suddenly disliking your own music so much that you want to delete it from iTunes* but there's that little voice in your head that says you shouldn't because then you're wasting music and why'd you fork over that $14** if you were just going to leave the CD in a pile collecting dust?



---
*Replace “iTunes” with your music player of choice.
**A rough/high estimate of the cost of any given CD, not including imports or DVD/CD combos.

Magician fools tricks robbers

The Smoking Gun and The Washington Post report that illusionist David Copperfield and two of his assistants were robbed at gunpoint after a show Sunday night.

According to IMDb, Copperfield turned his pockets inside-out to show the robbers there was nothing in them, but later revealed to police his pockets contained a cell phone, wallet, and passport.

Who the feck tries to rob David Copperfield? Dumb-ass-es, that's who. Mom and Pop Copperfield should be proud, David chose the correct career to help him through life.

Thanks to The DarkHat for alerting me to the story.

Lady troubles and cravings

Excuse me for not being very entertaining while I experience phantom pain in areas of me that should not be able to feel pain. (I won't elaborate on that. Or, did you want me to?)

Since it's my time of the month for rage from my body for not letting Hay impregnate me I guess it's as good a time as any to succumb to my cravings and present to you my flickr food set. Teaser:



That's an eggplant parm. I don't eat eggplant, long story, but that sammy still looks FIERCELY tasty.

PS - I've decided to swear off alcohol for the foreseeable future. I didn't have any alcohol for a whole year because of the back meds. On my recent conference trip I had one beer. I hated the way it made me feel, meds or no meds. I don't need it in my life, and I'd rather drink water or soda. So. No more alcohol for this chick. (*tweet*)

Johnny Cash crush song

This song is wrong, but it makes me love Johnny. In spirit, of course.

Go away from my window
Leave at your own chosen speed
I'm not the one you want, babe
I'm not the one you need
You say you're lookin' for someone
Who's never weak but always strong
To protect you and defend you
Whether you are right or wrong
Someone to open each and every door

But it ain't me babe
No, no, no, it ain't me babe
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe

Go lightly from the ledge, babe
Go lightly on the ground
I'm not the one you want, babe
I'll only let you down
You say you're lookin' for someone
Who'll promise never to part
Someone to close his eyes to you
Someone to close his heart
Someone to die for you and more

But it ain't me babe
No, no, no, it ain't me babe
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe

You say you're lookin' for someone
To pick you up each time you fall
To gather flowers constantly
And to come each time you call
And will love you for your life
And nothin' more

But it ain't me babe
No, no, no, it ain't me babe
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe

Happy dance!

I am watching the tail end of Zathura so missed the American Idol elimination show. Thankfully, blogland keeps us posted. According to MJ's blog, Kellie was eliminated from Idol! WOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!! In this case I'm super happy to have been wrong.

Woodpecker, anyone?

This one was mammoth. All of our other woodpeckers are 1/4 the size at best. This champ musta been eating his Wheaties!

A few more shots, including a full-sized photo, are over at flickr.

Update: P'nut has confirmed that this is a real woody (pileated) woodpecker. More examples are here and here.

Just so's ya know

I have an overabundance of “stuff” to blog about, but it all involves photos and I've already stuck way too many photos on the blog for now.

Tonight (actually, momentarily) Hay and I will be going shopping for our friends' baby's 1^st birthday. I plan to purchase a Manhattan Toy for her. I'm très-très excited. I'm actually a bit giddy about the whole thing. :)

The birthday girl →

More from the free cone Lindt chocolate excursion

This bun is 1000g, 1kg, 10 times larger than their other buns...

And, of course, a wall of buns at highly discounted prices were waiting for me to purchase them. NUM.

Zahara is my co-pilot

Sorry, that's like one of my favorite titles: [       ] is my co-pilot.

These photos are from Hollywood Rag, who got them from Simply Brad.




I love Zahara...such a cutie patootie. Poor Maddox has been replaced. And soon Zahara will be, too. Sadness.

AI short and long predictions

I was just speaking with the ladies at my local convenience store, and we all agree:

Short: Bottom three will include Paris and Kellie, but Paris will be sent home because Kellie is blonde and blue.

Long: Chris will win it all. Oh, and he is teh h0tN355.

STO-len from Stef

Find your own pose!

What'd I just say? Yah.

Ice cream falling from the sky

Reminder: FREE CONE DAY. At all Ben & Jerry's scoop shops in the US. Go! Get! Scoot! Num!


Update: Sadly, I did not get a free cone. The line was too long. Really. Like, hours long. So, yah, I went to the Lindt 50% off Easter chocolate sale instead.

This kind of sweetness:




...instead of this kind (or, what was left of it ion the sidewalk):

Braces lesson #246

Do not eat saffron rice (or curry) while wearing braces, unless you like your chains and such to be permanently died yellow for the duration.

Tragedy loves company loves goofing off

It's really hard on me when I watch a reality-type show and am moved by it in whichever direction it cares to move me, then during the credits I see that one of the people in the show has died. The first time this happened was when I was watching the Women's Entertainment (We) show Single in New York. Do you know where I'm going with this? Probably. It was the beginning of 2002, or thereabouts, and I had just finished watching a marathon of the 2001 New York episodes. In the very last episode one of the ladies was so excited that she had finally found her true love in a big financial hot shot who worked at the WTC. Her parting comments were that they had planned to marry soon and start their lives together. Her fiance died on 9/11 when the WTC tower he was in (either North or South, I don't rightly remember which, but that's not the point) collapsed. I can't tell you how gutted I was when I read that on the screen. I started bawling. Once I stopped crying, or maybe in between sobs, I started craving information about him and his fiancee. I found all types of In Memoriam sites at the time, even a bit of an update from his fiancee.

Of course, the mind and the Internets are both fickle, so I now have no recollection of his name or nickname, and neither does Google or even We, who produces and airs the show. This makes me realize that peeking into people's lives for entertainment value is very short lived. I have been super busy at work for several weeks now, because this is our busy time, then at home because this is planting time. I have therefore had almost no time to keep up with the celeblogs. Day 1 I craved them like a wonderful cigarette or glass of 19-year-old Scotch, but now it's day I-don't-even-know-what and I check one or two sites maybe twice a day, if at all. I come away from them thinking, “why am I bothering?” I know those people are all important to someone, but it doesn't have to be me. Woah. You mean, the world will continue to revolve if I don't check 12 times an hour?! Really?! Are you sure? ... (Stef, help me out, am I sure? I heard a rumor that the world revolves elsewhere. ;)

I know I'm cured of my addiction for now. After my ortho adjustment this afternoon (I've moved from vertical Impalas to Bears with a box pattern! W00T!), instead of rushing home to curl up and catch up with my favorite celebrity gossip sites I went to Agway to purchase potato tubers, onion sets, seeds for the veggie gardens, and dried corn cobs for the squirrels. Once home I did laundry, dishes, cat treats, mail sorting, dinner, and tweaking of the eVite guest list for our porch party. What the hell have I become? Old lady! No. No, no no. Responsible! Yes. Okay. But not that responsible, because I really should be in bed right now but I'm goofing around on my blog. 8^.D

That's messed up.

Manhole-turned-coffee propaganda. From Betta Don't.

If it wasn't clear enough already...

I love Stacy. Like, real love. Like, sister love. Like, bff love. She has gone legit so if you're interested in buying from her that'd rock.


As I said over at teh Gl1tt3r@t1, I have her photos all over my home and soon my office. She has “the eye” for photography. :)

Cello

...?

Update: Stupid Blogger...

Getting lucky

Your Lucky Underwear is Blue

You are caring and extroverted. You've made relationships your number one focus, and your lucky blue underwear can bring some balance to them. You thrive in one-on-one situations. You are a good listener and a natural born therapist. Sometimes you let the concerns of others become too important in your life, leading to stress and worry. If you want more balance, put on your blue underpants. They'll help you take care of yourself first.

What Color Is Your Lucky Underwear?

I am not an extrovert, although throw me in a room with a bunch of strangers and I'll chat them up. Throw me in that same room with a friend and strangers and I'll hang back and watch the show.

Everything else about my undies is dead on.

Thanks to Emily and Cariel at BarbieMartini for introducing me to my inner underwear.

I seriously need help. Seriously. No, really.

I just bought $200 worth of plants online. Before the last order has even arrived yet. I need to stop. When I say $200 I mean baby plants and bulbs, so you get a lot more for your dollar than if they're already mature. So, $200 for me just bought me all of the following.

I'm currently not sure when these will arrive:

1 Dwarf Lemon Tree (household/indoor)
2 Queen's Tears
4 Forsythia
24 Freesias
1 Climbing Shell Plant
12 Giant Hibiscus
1 Perennial Bargain colleciton (including a mixture of some of the following: Delphinium, Balloon Flower, Liatris, Hen and Chicks, Astilbe, Painted Daisies, Golden Sundrops, Carnations, Bleeding Heart, Hibiscus, Dianthus, Hollyhocks, Columbine, Achillea, Japanese Iris, White Butterfly)
3 Silver Fountain Grass
6 Dwarf Burning Bush
2 Perennial Sweet Pea
4 Red Bud Trees
6 Tree Bargains (whatever their surplus trees are is what I'll receive!)
40 Gladiola Bulbs
3 Red Wegelia Shrubs
1 Windflower - Riot of Color
3 Red Maple Trees
10 Cushion Mums
1 Potted Weeping Cherry
2 French Pussy Willows

Items purchased now to be delivered in September:

Ice Stick Tulip Bulbs
Arum italicum Plant
Firecracker Flower
Cream of the Crop Tulips - Supers
Flower Drift Daffodils
White Lion Daffodils
Replete Daffodils
Tulip French Lace Mixture

*clappy hands* but guilty conscience.

Did someone call for a little Sunday Garden?

Cuz I got some.

Teaser:



There are even fishtank plants in the set. Enjoy!

On my work desk

The Poppyland Daily

I spent from 8:30am to 3:30pm preparing for and doing yard work. I even had to dig a small bed so that I could move the invasive primrose from the front bed to directly under the back deck. I had to make a decision about whether to try to divide the primrose away from my balloon plants, but the primrose was so entwined that I brought the balloon plants along with the primrose to the back. I'm sad to have to move them, but I have other balloon plants in the front, the primrose was completely taking over its section of the front bed, and now I have room so that I could plant seeds of Delphinium, Hollyhocks, and Cupid's Dart. I'm pretty excited to have those grow. :)



While digging the primrose bed I found this juicy worm in with the others.



Note my thumb in the picture for scale. Ew.

Hay knows how entertained I am by bugs and such, so he brought over a stick from one of our trees which was already being nested by baby caterpillars.



They're squirmy little suckers.

During a very brief trip out to get lumber for another raised flowerbed and to grab some lunch to bring back home I saw a man on the side of the road selling lawn ornaments so I stopped to learn about them. He said he makes them himself so I bought some bunnies for the front flowerbed.



I love how their eyes are made with glass beads.



Princess Kitty, the neighbor-across-the-street's cat, came over to visit today. While she was over her nervously skinny twin came as far as the middle of the road and mewed at me.



I went to the road and picked her up to put her down on our side of the road, but she jumped down and ran away. Later she came over and scoped out our driveway under Hay's car and our garage then she left. I guess people make her skiddish.

I'd just like to say there's nothing like totally trashing your hands and fingernails in the process of a great day's of work in the dirt. I did my best to clean up my hands before heading over to my dad's house for supper, scrubbing my hands and nails with a pedi brush and gritty soap, but I ended up needing to cut all my nails off.

While over at Dad's for dinner I looked at old photographs of my family.



My father recently found two boxes of papers and photos he had not realized were in his possession. I've decided I'd like a fair number of the ones he is offering to me and my brother. Now I just need to negotiate with my brother to hold onto the ones I chose. ... I'm younger. No matter which photos Big Brother takes I still get to keep my own photos of Dad's collection of pocketwatch faces. :)




Dad also showed me a scrapbook that my grandmother made which contained all the cards people sent congratulating my grandparents on the birth of my dad.



A few of the cards are super cute. My dad prefaced my viewing of the scrapbook by saying its contents would be nothing I'm interested in. I swear my dad's self esteem is lower than my own some days... I think there were about 50 cards, maybe really closer to 100, in that book.

Hay and I had a scrumptious pot roast dinner with Vidalia onion, carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy, and rolls. It was so good. My stepmom really is a great cook of traditional American dishes. Let's admit for the sake of my stereotype that we've adopted spaghetti with meat sauce, Shepherd's pie, and tacos as American fare.

It's almost midnight and I'm nodding off. Sweet dreams, Blogland. See you tomorrow for Sunday Garden!

~P

Shuffle

From Kim. Put your iTunes or other music player of choice on shuffle/random, and whatever song pops up is the answer to each question.

Will I get far in life?
Salvation - Michael Hoppe, Martin Tillman, Tim Wheater

How do my friends see me?
One Evening - Feist

Where will I get married?
Waiting Room - No Doubt
(I'm already there, so I've actually already left the building!)

What is my best friend’s theme song?
Suddenly Last Summer - The Motels

What is the story of my life?
Hypocrite - The Samples
(Woah. My secret has been found out!)

What was high school like?
Answer - Sarah McLachlan

How can I get ahead in life?
Zamba corta - Juana Molina
(A beautiful song about a day with her grandmother.)

What is the best thing about me?
Boom Intro / Pass the Dutch - Missy Elliott
(I've never done drugs in my life, but I love me some Missy.)

How is today going to be?
Summer Skin - Death Cab for Cutie

What is in store for this weekend?
Extra Smooth - Aaliyah

What song describes my parents?
Wildcat - Hot Club of Cow Town

My grandparents?
Pick Up the Phone - Ciara

How is my life going?
Fearless - Cyndi Lauper

What song will they play at my funeral?
Pantala Naga Pampa - Dave Matthews Band

How does the world see me?
Running - No Doubt

Will I have a happy life?
Second Best - Barenaked Ladies

What do my friends really think of me?
New Kid (On the Block) - Barenaked Ladies

Do people secretly lust after me?
Don't Tell Me - Avril Lavigne

How can I make myself happy?
Sonamos - Juana Molina
(A song about children keeping a secret from Mother. I do like my secrets. They're something I collect.)

What should I do with my life?
All Through the Night - Cyndi Lauper

Will I ever have children?
More Than Love - Los Lonely Boys

What is some good advice?
Round Here - Counting Crows

What is my signature dancing song?
Alternative Girlfriend - Barenaked Ladies
(I LOVE THIS SONG, FOR REAL.)

What do I think my current theme song is?
I Don't Know What You Come To Do - Robert Randolph & The Family Band

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Walking On the Moon - The Police

What type of men/women do you like?
Break Your Heart - Barenaked Ladies
(Well, that used to be true...)

Santa, Baby

Hay wanted cake with tomorrow night's dinner of pot roast prepared by my stepmom. My dad and stepmom don't like traditional cake, so as a compromise my stepmom will make one dessert and I made the cake that Hay wants -- Devil's Food cake with cream cheese frosting. And santas. Just because.

rural

poulet

Here's the best photo of the chickens I could get while Hay was attempting to slow down for me:




Yes, we will see 3 or 4 dead chickens in the road each year. They cross the road a lot, no joke.

Books (by women) meme

Borrowed from Elle at Living Juicy. This should be interesting. I don't get the impression about myself that I read a lot of women authors.

Rules: BOLD those you’ve read, ITALICIZE the ones you’ve been meaning to read.

Alcott, Louisa May–Little Women
Allende, Isabel–The House of Spirits
Angelou, Maya–I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret–Cat’s Eye
Austen, Jane–Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade–Salt Eaters
Barnes, Djuna–Nightwood
de Beauvoir, Simone–The Second Sex
Blume, Judy–Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret (over and over and over again)
Burnett, Frances–The Secret Garden
Bronte, Charlotte–Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily–Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl S.–The Good Earth
Byatt, A.S.–Possession
Cather, Willa–My Antonia
Christie, Agatha–Murder on the Orient Express
Cisneros, Sandra–The House on Mango Street
Clinton, Hillary Rodham–Living History
Cooper, Anna Julia–A Voice From the South
Danticat, Edwidge–Breath, Eyes, Memory
Davis, Angela–Women, Culture, and Politics
Desai, Anita–Clear Light of Day
Dickinson, Emily–Collected Poems
Duncan, Lois–I Know What You Did Last Summer
DuMaurier, Daphne–Rebecca
Eliot, Geroge–Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi–Second Class Citizen
Erdrich, Louise–Tracks
Esquivel, Laura–Like Water for Chocolate (I think I read this, but if not I intend to do so)
Flagg, Fannie–Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty–The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne–Diary of a Young Girl
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins–The Yellow Wallpaper
Gordimer, Nadine–July’s People
Grafton, Sue–S is for Silence
Hamilton, Edith–Mythology
Highsmith, Patricia–The Talented Mr. Ripley (loved the book until the ending)
Hooks, Bell–Bone Black
Hurston, Zora Neale–Dust Tracks on the Road
Jacobs, Harriet–Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Jackson, Helen Hunt–Ramona
Jackson, Shirley–The Haunting of Hill House
Jong, Erica–Fear of Flying
Keene, Carolyn–The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them)
Kidd, Sue Monk–The Secret Life of Bees (in the process of listening to the book on tape still)
Kincaid, Jamaica–Lucy
Kingsolver, Barbara–The Poisonwood Bible (again, think I read it but if not intended to)
Kingston, Maxine Hong–The Woman Warrior
Larsen, Nella–Passing
L’Engle, Madeleine–A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K.–The Left Hand of Darkness
Lee, Harper–To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris–The Golden Notebook
Lively, Penelope–Moon Tiger
Lorde, Audre–The Cancer Journals
Martin, Ann M.–The Babysitters Club Series
McCullers, Carson–The Member of the Wedding
McMillan, Terry–Disappearing Acts
Markandaya, Kamala–Nectar in a Sieve
Marshall, Paule–Brown Girl, Brownstones
Mitchell, Margaret–Gone with the Wind
Montgomery, Lucy–Anne of Green Gables
Morgan, Joan–When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost
Morrison, Toni–Song of Solomon (one of my favorites of ALL time)
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu–The Tale of Genji
Munro, Alice–Lives of Girls and Women
Murdoch, Iris–A Severed Head
Naylor, Gloria–Mama Day
Niffenegger, Audrey–The Time Traveller’s Wife
Oates, Joyce Carol–We Were the Mulvaneys
O’Connor, Flannery–A Good Man is Hard to Find
Piercy, Marge–Woman on the Edge of Time
Picoult, Jodi–My Sister’s Keeper
Plath, Sylvia–The Bell Jar
Porter, Katharine Anne–Ship of Fools
Proulx, E. Annie–The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn–The Fountainhead
Ray, Rachel–365: No Repeats
Rhys, Jean–Wide Sargasso Sea
Robinson, Marilynne–Housekeeping
Rocha, Sharon–For Laci
Sebold, Alice–The Lovely Bones
Shelley, Mary–Frankenstein
Smith, Betty–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Zadie–White Teeth
Spark, Muriel–The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spyri, Johanna–Heidi
Strout, Elizabeth–Amy and Isabelle
Steel, Danielle–The House
Tan, Amy–The Joy Luck Club
Tannen, Deborah–You’re Wearing That
Ulrich, Laurel–A Midwife’s Tale
Urquhart, Jane–Away
Walker, Alice–The Temple of My Familiar
Welty, Eudora–One Writer’s Beginnings
Wharton, Edith–Age of Innocence
Wilder, Laura Ingalls–Little House in the Big Woods
Wollstonecraft, Mary–A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia–A Room of One’s Own

Yah, that's what I thought. I'm sure many if not all of you have read way more of these than I have.

Weepy

I have no idea why Joaquin and Reese “work” but the end of that movie just moved me to tears. I knew it was all coming -- they get married, they live a long life together, she dies, then he dies 4 months later, but it's all so bittersweet. Such a wonderful story. *sigh*

Keyword query: fuck me poppy

What do you suppose the person who did that Yahoo search was actually looking for when s/he found my site?

Johnquin

I am not finished watching Walk the Line, am up to the part where Johnny/Joaquin falls into the water with his tractor, but I love the music and movie so much that I just bought the soundtrack then stuck a bunch of essential Johnny Cash albums on my wish list. I loved Johnny from afar, owning only one of his newest albums, but now it's time to get close and personal and risk overdosing in the process.



(PS - Idol speak: Ace went home last night. GOOD call, America. Get rid of Kellie next, PLEASE?!)

Riding in cars with (a) boy

On the way into work this morning I saw:

1. Four free-frange chickens, one of which was a beautiful rust-colored rooster
   
2. Two miniature Basset Hounds, one of which was a boy and was peeing on a tree
   
3. One emu who was being gawked at by a tourist (the other emu who is usually there must have been in hiding)
   
4. Two beautiful black horses, one of which was a boy and was peeing straight down to the ground
   
5. A clueless lady in a GMC Yukon who chose not to yield to our car, and who has now been sworn at profusely by moi (oops)

Summer is early.

Because Buddy says so. :)

Paris Bennett sings These Foolish Things

From April 18th's American Idol. Love, love love it!

Oh, the irony!

I wonder how pissed Brooke Shields is that she gave birth to a baby girl on the very same day that a baby girl was born to Katie Holmes, wife-to-be of the crazy couch jumper who slams the idea that women get depressed after having babies. Life is funny...


PS - did anyone else notice that TomKat's baby is named the middle of Tom's last name?

S-U-R-I
(C)-R-U-I-S-(E)

Not so creative after all. Probably just sitting around in a room staring at his own last name and said, “oooh, another way to make this kid MINE!”

Free cone day is here! (almost)

Announced to me by B&J:

Oh Happy Day! Tuesday, April 25th is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's, and you know what that means... free ice cream for you! As a way to thank our customers for their support and to celebrate 28 years of scooping the chunkiest, funkiest ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet, Participating Ben & Jerry's scoop shops are giving it away between noon and 8:00pm! So head on down and have a scoop of an old favorite flavor, or maybe even find a new one. Like we said... Oh Happy Day!

Put it on your calendar, people! :)

UPDATE: Yes, if you have a scoop shop near you then you can get a free cone if you go there on April 25. It's not just for Poppyland, je vous promets!

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"Nice doggy."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

Thanks, P'nut! The thing I don't get is that I told the quiz that I expected to die of old age at 90, and instead of that I'm getting chased by a dog? I love dogs. I already have a strategy for mean dogs -- punch 'em in the nose, just like a shark. Stuns 'em, and you've got the chance to grab their necks or run like the mommyrubbin' wind. Right? Hmmm. Maybe I am going to die at the jaws of a nice doggy.

Pin drop

You could have heard one in the house while Paris Bennett performed her song. She looked beautiful, she went back to her Billie Holiday style, and her stage performance was commanding, but in a perfectly demure and subtle way. We love you, P. :) Simon's comment: “You bewilder me.” (In a good way. :)

We totally thought this theme would suck, and it so does not.

To the confused: Hi, this post is about American Idol. :)

I walk the line

I took that photo for all y'all in our backyard wildflower bulb bed. I actually was thinking, “I hope blogland really enjoys this shot” as I was lining it up.

And, of course, segue to the movie Walk the Line which arrived from Netflix. I'm not sure when exactly we'll be watching it. Hay has been very tired at night so we've been watching regular TV or nothing. I am looking forward to it, although I think Joaquin is a very odd pick to play Johnny.


Oops, one more thing. I sent flowers to my co-worker-in-Iraq-who-is-now-home and his wife. Orchids. I hope they like them. Who doesn't like orchids?

Bachelor pad unveiling

Apparently I now live in a very masculine home.

Here's the house before the gutters:



...and here's the house later today:



(Keep in mind, and I'm really telling myself this, that it's very sunny in the before picture and very unsunny in the after picture.)

I'm not telling you what to do, but you better still like my house or I'll beat you up. Or, maybe I need to beat Hay up for “encouraging” me to agree to black gutters. But, whatever. I'm actually more freaked out that I can hear my heart beating when I wear my noise cancelling headphones. Que la f? with a side of freakando sauce!