Mega update

Posted on May 8, 2007
Filed Under Blather, Pennsylvania, Red Sox, family, friends, knitting | Leave a Comment

I finally finished the jacket for Hope and gave it to her over the weekend. Here’s the photographic evidence.

…and I was afraid it would be too small! Huzzah! Note also that Hope is now walking!

So we were in Pennsylvania for my
Mom’s retirement party. The weather was fabulous–sunny and bright and
pleasantly temperate. We got to see the fam…

play with Hope…

Ezra making the funniest face EVER

and go to Otto’s (mmm, beer). But of course, the main event was the
retirement party. Mom seemed to like our gifts–a locket from Kim,
Glenn, and Hope, and a retirement starter kit (sewing box, book, gift
certificates, etc.) from me and Ez. The party was at the Civil
Engineering Lodge at Stone Valley, which turned out to be very nice
given the pretty weather.

Marty, Mark, and Mom (Poor Mark is losing both of his fellow third grade teachers in one year!!)

I got my hair cut, and got in some fun thrift
shopping, too (loot includes three scarves, some antique Christmas
postcards–since I can’t leave State College without some, and a swell
blazer/jacket that was only four bucks!).

Now we’re back home and the kitties are content. Thanks to Amy and Doug for looking in on them! Speaking of which…

Last Tuesday they joined us for our first Red Sox game of the year.
Unfortunately, the Sox lost, but it was still quite fun. First there
was revelry at the blissfully uncrowded Boston Beer Works–it helps to
get there early.

This was followed by actual baseball.

Visualize flurries

Posted on December 13, 2006
Filed Under Blather, Pennsylvania, christmas, dining, films, friends, me and my brain, the telly | Leave a Comment

If you know me at all, then you know that for me this really IS the most wonderful time of the year. I’ve been busy with all sorts of
things, many of them holiday. Since the best part is sharing, it’s time to report.

Saturday night we hosted our (usually) annual holiday party. This year we did a potluck, and I personally had a fabulous time. Thanks to all of our creative and talented friends, the food and drink were fantastic, as was the conversation. I made a fool of myself (think of it in the Shakespearian sense and maybe it’s not so bad) with the drink and babble, but it was totally worth it. It was great to see some friends who we don’t get a chance to see very often, too. As we do every year, we’ll try to be better this coming year about keeping up with our friends. I think we’ve made some progress this year! If you’re reading this, you’re probably on our “to see” list! We ended up with a lot of leftovers. If you want some sweets, I’ve got them!

Last weekend Ezra and I joined the crowd at The Brattle for the annual showing of It’s a Wonderful Life. Starbucks was paying for the matinee, so everyone got in free and the theater was indeed packed. I wasn’t sure a packed theater was ideal, I have to admit, since past experience tells me that sometimes big crowds at The Brattle are noisy and just make fun of the film. (Sometimes that makes sense, but often it’s annoying.) I had nothing to worry about, though. It was a great, enthusiastic crowd. They laughed heartily at appropriate points throughout the first half or so and fell silent as the film became a bit more serious. Everyone clapped loudly at the end (at this particular viewing I felt especially like clapping and cheering myself), and I noticed lots of teary eyes when the lights came up. IAWL

Pretty much every time I see the film, I notice something new or think about it in a little bit of a new way. Something always strikes me. This time I noticed when one of the bullets the cop aims at George shoots out the S in the Pottersville sign (Ezra had mentioned that to me last year). It also occured to me, and I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before, that George and Mary name their first child after George’s father, Peter Bailey. In a more general way, I was struck this time by how much the film is about selflessness and its rewards. Of course, throughout the film George gives of himself and makes sacrifices for other people. What I hadn’t thought about so much before is that when he asks Clarence to give him his life back at the end, he is again being selfless. By affirming his life, he assures that his family, friends, and the town will still benefit from his gifts. I always used to think that It’s a Wonderful Life was not really strictly a Christmas movie. Yes, the climactic moments happen on Christmas Eve, but it’s about so much more than that. I think though, that I realized with this viewing that it is a perfect Christmas movie, because Christmas to me is about all of the things George does and all of the things he learns. It’s about giving of yourself. The more religious among you might use that as a metaphor. For me, it all goes back to two statements in the film that are shown but never spoken–Clarence’s inscription to George in the copy of Tom Sawyer he gives him, “No Man Is a Failure Who Has Friends,” and the framed statement under Peter Bailey’s portrait at the Building and Loan that says, “You Can Only Take with You That Which You Have Given Away.” Have a tissue.

I’ve watched many of the other holiday movies and shows that I make a point to see every year, though I’m quite frustrated that I missed Rudolph. Sigh… I have watched Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, Charlie Brown, and the Grinch, along with It’s a Wonderful Life. A Christmas Story and The Bishop’s Wife are still on the to-view list.

Ezra has declared our living room Santa’s workshop. We have the tree in there this year, and I’ve got a gift wrapping station set up. It’s a bit of a… er… work in progress, shall we say. Messy, but festive.

As you likely know, the weather is not cooperating. What is this rain and 50 degrees crap? It’s got exactly 11 days to get its shit together. Accuweather, the darlings, are at least predicting that it won’t get out of the 30s on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in State College. Yes, I am checking daily.

Haunted by Mega Star

Posted on November 9, 2006
Filed Under Blather, Pennsylvania, me and my brain | 4 Comments

At Ezra’s prompting, I’ll write up this creepy dream I had last night. It took place at my parents’ house in Pennsylvania (as many of my dreams do). I was there, and so was Scarlett Johansson. She was some sort of psycho femme fatale, I guess… coming on to everyone (male and female), somehow vacuous but with a great capacity for trickery, manipulation, and evil. She was trying to kill me (and maybe everyone else, too). Primarily she was trying to hit me with things. I can’t remember all the details, but somebody tried to hit somebody with the base of a heavy lamp, a big silver tray, and a long serrated knife. Well, I tried to hit her, too. I mean, self defense!! Somehow I got out of the house, but she was still in there. I went to seek help. I walked down my parents’ street, and then turned back. When I returned to the house I was initially pleased to see a bunch of cars in the driveway–help had arrived, maybe. I took one small truck for a police vehicle, but then my heart sank when I realized it was just a mail truck. I went inside… cautiously… Scarlett heard me come in and she slowly started down the stairs, in a daze. I tried to sort of tackle her, but she pulled out one of those leatherman things and tried to whack me with it. Then one of us had a wrench. I think at that point I woke up.

Is it girlie to report…

Posted on August 26, 2006
Filed Under Blather, Pennsylvania | 2 Comments

… that I got some superfantastic-happymaking goodies at Rag and Bone vintage in State College to go along with my swell new haircut (nothing drastic, but a good chop this time)? I am so pleased with my dresses (one with utterly stylin’ matching coat), blouse, and scarves. I’m considering finding my way back there before I leave town as I never did get to properly eyeball the many fabulous bags. Everybody can use new school duds, right?

Even after the Accident, it sounds like Big Ben is a Big Idiot

Posted on July 13, 2006
Filed Under Blather, Pennsylvania, rant, sports in general | Leave a Comment

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5780408?FSO1&ATT=HMA

Roethlisberger was cited for not wearing a helmet when the accident happened.

“That day I wasn’t, I forgot it. I literally forgot it,” he said. “You know there are times that, people that have been making a big deal for the last couple years about me riding first of all, and then me riding without a helmet, but it’s one of those things that I ride with a helmet also. I do a little bit of both. If you don’t wear a seat belt every time you ride in the car should I label you as a person who doesn’t wear a seat belt? And unfortunately I happened to not have it on that day because I forgot it in the basement.”

It’s not like that Ben, old boy. The whole point is that you don’t anticipate an accident. It’s not “Gee, I don’t feel like it today, and no one should blame me for that.” It’s more like, “You wear a seatbelt in a car and a helmet on any sort of bike every time you go out, or you don’t go out at all. Period.” As a public figure, I think he should take what he says a little more seriously. What a shit example he’s becoming.

You know what:
“If you don’t wear a seat belt every time you ride in the car should I label you as a person who doesn’t wear a seat belt?”

My answer to that is, YES.

“Hi, my name is Ben Roethilisberger and I’m a complete idiot.”

Not just the books, but the place where I live with them

Posted on June 22, 2006
Filed Under Blather, Pennsylvania, me and my brain, the written word, this old house | 2 Comments

Some of my fondest memories from childhood–in fact, from adolescence, too–are of spending time at Schlow Memorial Library in State College.Â As a kid, I loved going there and scanning through the rows and rows of butter yellow, blue, and dark green bound picture books.Â The Lonely Doll, A is for Annabelle,Â and A Dolls’ ChristmasÂ were early favorites. Later IÂ found The Finch’s Fabulous Furnace, and, later still, Chronicles of Avonlea.Â But it isn’t just the books that I loved then or that I hold in my memory, but the place itself… It’s the reading tables and bean bag chairs from the old children’s room, the hard shiny floor at the entrance by the circulation desk, the old winding staircase up to the adult section, the record albums with their dog-eared sleevesÂ (we practically wore out that Mary Poppins read-along record, and years later I taped XTC’s Skylarking from the Schlow copy), theÂ recent periodicals in red-edged plastic sleeves.Â It’s the hushed echo of the outer vestibule and the weird isolation in the narrow adult stacks.Â

Schlow 2003 Â

The library has just been expanded–for the second time in my lifetime (and I’m only 31).Â There’sÂ both a lot toÂ love and a lot to hate about State College.Â That the public library is so busy and so valued in the community–now as it was when I was a kid–is one of the things to love and hang on to.

The PA Report

Posted on May 16, 2006
Filed Under Blather, Pennsylvania, Red Sox, rant, the telly | Leave a Comment

Greetings from rainy Happy Valley.Â I suppose it’s not as rainy as the world of the Curtisian.Â But it’s rainy-ish.

I am watching the Red Sox and Orioles on ESPN, and Mark Loretta is hitting everything Lopez is giving him.Â Mark Loretta is on my good list.Â Lowell, too.Â ESPN, while not as bad as Fox, ain’t no NESN.Â (Did I just write “ain’t no” on purpose?Â Yes.Â Yes, I did.)Â Remy and Don are just much more entertaining, and a good bit more informative, too.Â And I’ll bet they didn’t skip out in the middle of the 3rd inning to show Barry Bonds doing NOTHING in Houston.Â Do we have to drop everything every time this jerk is at the plate?Â They’ve just informed me that they think we do.Â (*Groan*)

It’s quiet here, but then again, it’s pretty quiet at home, too.Â I made 30 phone calls today for work, and I feel like it wasn’t enough.Â Must crank (not crank call, but crank out the calls).Â Most people I called were very nice and cooperative, but one very sour woman was enough to end my phone calling for the day.Â No need to be rude.Â I’m just doing my job like she is.Â And no, I am not selling anything.

I made dinner tonight–penne with asparagus in a light pink sauce and a little salad with arugula and tomatoes.Â It was good, though I think a tad more kick would have been welcome.Â I’ll have to try it again at home.

Is it just me, or are the Red Sox doing more spitting this year than they have the last couple of years?Â Baseball or not, it’s gross.Â Whenever I see the guys chewing gum instead (Nixon, Loretta), I applaud.

EDIT:Â After I posted this, I saw Nixon spitting something, and ESPN showed Varitek (not you, JV!) stuffing his lip (ugh).Â One of the commentators actually said something about it, as though it was JV’s little reward after his home run.Â As Mel Cooley would say, “Yech!”