1. I have a Secret Garden. Tom built it just for me.
2. Every morning I drink 2 cups of coffee with 2 packets of Splenda and my secret vice - a nice dollup of ultra-pasteurized premium cream.
3. This spring I bought a pair of olive green mules. The kind you wear on your feet, not the kind that pull your plow.
4. I liked high school and loved college but I hated my elementary school. After I graduated I did not look at the building for about 10 - 12 years. Everytime we drove by I averted my face and (unless I was the driver) closed my eyes. I think that's how my parents finally figured out that I had hated the school that much!
5. I have a green thumb. Most stuff I plant grows too well so my gardens keep expanding and every year I have to put a giant houseplant out at the street with a "free" sign on it. The biggest houseplant I ever put out was an 8 foot tall fiddle-leaf fig tree. This year I was going to put my banana tree out but instead I think I will plant it a garden and treat it as a really big annual.
6. I like rainy days.
7. I am slowly becoming uninformed because I can't stand to watch news or read anything about Iraq, Geo. W. (will not type his name), the middle east in general, or the latest celebrity meltdown. I.Don't.Care. I think the media are all pussies and patsies and no longer engage their critical thinking skills. Even my newspaper is losing its edge.
8. Today, I am going to order a bunch of books from Amazon (again.)
I think most people have been tagged, however I will look north and tag Meemo, Coco, Seana and Lights. All people who need to get out in blogland more!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Mr. Kerr
I've been thinking about Mr. Kerr today, after emailing with a friend. Mr. Kerr was a 6' 7" red-headed beanpole who taught math and science at my high school, and was brutally killed there during a football game.
Mr. Kerr loved geometry. He was one of those teachers who lit up the room when he taught. A tall guy so full of energy the front of the room could barely contain him, and he loved to teach. His students were his whole life. In his mid-thirties he still lived with his mother. He was one of the first teachers to arrive at the school and one of the last to leave at the end of the day. He went to just about every game - football, basketball, whatever, just so he could cheer his students on.
At football games he always sat on the top row of the old metal bleachers we had. He liked to be up top there because, as he often said, he wasn't used to people looking down at him. On the day he was killed he was sitting on the top bench as usual.
It was a hot day, with thunderstorms in the distance. In the first half of the game, out of nowhere, a lightning bolt exploded out of the sky and slammed into the metal bleachers. It entered the bleachers through the top of Mr. Kerr's head. Some students sitting on the lower seats were thrown off. A few had serious burns. Mr. Kerr? Toast. Burned toast. Totally unrecognizable - all the energy of the lightning had passed through him while going to ground.
He was such a good teacher.
So sad.
Mr. Kerr loved geometry. He was one of those teachers who lit up the room when he taught. A tall guy so full of energy the front of the room could barely contain him, and he loved to teach. His students were his whole life. In his mid-thirties he still lived with his mother. He was one of the first teachers to arrive at the school and one of the last to leave at the end of the day. He went to just about every game - football, basketball, whatever, just so he could cheer his students on.
At football games he always sat on the top row of the old metal bleachers we had. He liked to be up top there because, as he often said, he wasn't used to people looking down at him. On the day he was killed he was sitting on the top bench as usual.
It was a hot day, with thunderstorms in the distance. In the first half of the game, out of nowhere, a lightning bolt exploded out of the sky and slammed into the metal bleachers. It entered the bleachers through the top of Mr. Kerr's head. Some students sitting on the lower seats were thrown off. A few had serious burns. Mr. Kerr? Toast. Burned toast. Totally unrecognizable - all the energy of the lightning had passed through him while going to ground.
He was such a good teacher.
So sad.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Theater of the Absurd
While we were out and about this weekend, Tom and I stumbled over a little gallery in St Paul that had these lovely bronze Humpty Dumpty statues sitting on a wall. They were so droll and cute! I loved them! And? While walking back and forth staring up at the little guys (they're about 2 ft tall) I managed to trip over nothing and fall. Yes, Swami went ass over tea kettle right in front of Humpty Dumpty!
Tom was hysterical. "Get up! Get up!!" he said while kind of prancing around me, but I just wanted to lay there for a minute and take inventory because I felt a bit stunned. I'm sure the passing cars thought we were extreme idiots but I don't care. And I managed to get up without the aid of any King's horses or any King's men. Just a helping hand from Tom.
Look at these guys! Aren't they glorious? I so want to go back and buy one, even if I have to build a fence for it!
Speaking of theater, one of the shows Tom and I saw this past week was a recreation of Fritz Lange's 1927 B & W silent movie masterpiece Metropolis. I have seen that movie before (parts of it are lost & forever missing) and tried to appreciate it, since it is one of the classics of early cinema and was totally futuristic and extravagant for it's time. But I never really felt like it was that special. I just couldn't get into it.
Well, this production was exceptional! The movie was projected onto a special semi-transparent screen, so depending on how or if the back-of-screen lighting was engaged you could see some activity behind the screen image too. So while the movie was playing various actors, dancers and performance artists did their thing--sometimes in front of the screen and sometimes seen dimly from behind. There were aerialists, people climbing Chinese Poles, people hanging from the ceiling, people doing odd tasks - all this done mostly during the scenes of the 1927 Worker's Class doing their jobs. And not directly in front of the screen, but on the edges and then moving beyond the edges so the effect was to explode the visuals right off the projection screen! It's hard to describe, but it was so well done! It always enhanced the original movie, never distracted. When the most dramatic scenes of the movie were playing the 21st century "extras" disappeared so as not to distract.
Best of all was the music. Electropolis (a local, fully electrified band) put together a rendition of Lange's original 1927 score that just took your breath away! It was fully electrified of course, so the sound quality itself just rocked. But the interpretation? Powerful, sexy, ominous, and live. The liveness of the music made the score immediate & meaningful. It was so much better than listening to some tinny, canned musical track.
Now I love this movie! I can appreciate the power of the story. Finally. It was wonderful!
And some asides:
--German actors of that era always look like gay Nazis to me. I'm not sure if that's because they were the models for Hollywood when our cinemas began to portray evil, conflicted Nazis - or if that is how German people's body postures and body language were back then. Could also be the heavy-handed eye make-up men of the silent era wore.
--Tom maintains that this was not an avant garde experience because nobody got naked. I say it was avant garde because whenever people in black body stockings and bare feet run across a stage in the dark while holding sheets of plastic you are allowed to stamp the production with that label. He just wanted to see naked people is all.
Tom was hysterical. "Get up! Get up!!" he said while kind of prancing around me, but I just wanted to lay there for a minute and take inventory because I felt a bit stunned. I'm sure the passing cars thought we were extreme idiots but I don't care. And I managed to get up without the aid of any King's horses or any King's men. Just a helping hand from Tom.
Look at these guys! Aren't they glorious? I so want to go back and buy one, even if I have to build a fence for it!
Speaking of theater, one of the shows Tom and I saw this past week was a recreation of Fritz Lange's 1927 B & W silent movie masterpiece Metropolis. I have seen that movie before (parts of it are lost & forever missing) and tried to appreciate it, since it is one of the classics of early cinema and was totally futuristic and extravagant for it's time. But I never really felt like it was that special. I just couldn't get into it.
Well, this production was exceptional! The movie was projected onto a special semi-transparent screen, so depending on how or if the back-of-screen lighting was engaged you could see some activity behind the screen image too. So while the movie was playing various actors, dancers and performance artists did their thing--sometimes in front of the screen and sometimes seen dimly from behind. There were aerialists, people climbing Chinese Poles, people hanging from the ceiling, people doing odd tasks - all this done mostly during the scenes of the 1927 Worker's Class doing their jobs. And not directly in front of the screen, but on the edges and then moving beyond the edges so the effect was to explode the visuals right off the projection screen! It's hard to describe, but it was so well done! It always enhanced the original movie, never distracted. When the most dramatic scenes of the movie were playing the 21st century "extras" disappeared so as not to distract.
Best of all was the music. Electropolis (a local, fully electrified band) put together a rendition of Lange's original 1927 score that just took your breath away! It was fully electrified of course, so the sound quality itself just rocked. But the interpretation? Powerful, sexy, ominous, and live. The liveness of the music made the score immediate & meaningful. It was so much better than listening to some tinny, canned musical track.
Now I love this movie! I can appreciate the power of the story. Finally. It was wonderful!
And some asides:
--German actors of that era always look like gay Nazis to me. I'm not sure if that's because they were the models for Hollywood when our cinemas began to portray evil, conflicted Nazis - or if that is how German people's body postures and body language were back then. Could also be the heavy-handed eye make-up men of the silent era wore.
--Tom maintains that this was not an avant garde experience because nobody got naked. I say it was avant garde because whenever people in black body stockings and bare feet run across a stage in the dark while holding sheets of plastic you are allowed to stamp the production with that label. He just wanted to see naked people is all.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Vacation to Nowhere Pics
Turns out we only have a few photos. It was only a one day vacation, or daycation as we like to call it.
No midwest road trip is complete without seeing several giant roadside statues. This is Tom in the LeSeur Valley with the Jolly Green Giant. Ho ho ho!!! If you remember the old series of TV commercials that featured the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant - this is where they were filmed.
No midwest road trip is complete without seeing several giant roadside statues. This is Tom in the LeSeur Valley with the Jolly Green Giant. Ho ho ho!!! If you remember the old series of TV commercials that featured the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant - this is where they were filmed.
Here is Tom by one of the Buffalo Ridge windmills. This is what we really wanted to see in western Minnesota. There are hundreds of windmills, stretched over an area of a few miles where the prairie winds blow non-stop. Each tower costs about one million dollars to build. They make an intense, low level humming/whooshing noise as they spin. Seeing them en masse was way more fun than I expected. They're huge!
Can you see my little 6'2" hubbie standing at the base? We didn't see any "no trespassing" signs so we just drove on the dirt access roads right up to them.
Here are the blades laying on the ground, ready for the next set of towers. They are about 120 ft long.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
My Vacation to Nowhere
I don't have any pics ready yet, but I should in a day or so.
Toma and I went to SW Minnesota because I haven't been there since 1983. Mostly we wanted to see the forest of windmills that has grown on Buffalo Ridge - an area known for steady 20-30 mph winds. They are huge! (Pics later!)
We stayed overnight in Pipestone, then headed back. Isn't that exciting? SW MN is flat, flat prairie (except for Buffalo Ridge.) It is also the Lost Home of the White People. What a homogonous lily-white bunch they are! And they all believe in Jesus.
Hotel was meh. Dinner was fabulous! I had the biggest darn sirloin tip steak ever cut. It was HUGE!
We drove through the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant. And that's all there is time for in a daycation. But it was fun and I got to be with Tom nonstop for almost 40 hours! Yay!
Now men are ripping up my driveway. And Tom is home so my computer time will be limited for the rest of the week. I hope to catch up my blog reading here and there as time & Tom permit.
Apolo won!!!!!
YAY!!!!!!!
Toma and I went to SW Minnesota because I haven't been there since 1983. Mostly we wanted to see the forest of windmills that has grown on Buffalo Ridge - an area known for steady 20-30 mph winds. They are huge! (Pics later!)
We stayed overnight in Pipestone, then headed back. Isn't that exciting? SW MN is flat, flat prairie (except for Buffalo Ridge.) It is also the Lost Home of the White People. What a homogonous lily-white bunch they are! And they all believe in Jesus.
Hotel was meh. Dinner was fabulous! I had the biggest darn sirloin tip steak ever cut. It was HUGE!
We drove through the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant. And that's all there is time for in a daycation. But it was fun and I got to be with Tom nonstop for almost 40 hours! Yay!
Now men are ripping up my driveway. And Tom is home so my computer time will be limited for the rest of the week. I hope to catch up my blog reading here and there as time & Tom permit.
Apolo won!!!!!
YAY!!!!!!!
Monday, May 21, 2007
And I'm Off Until Wednesday
Tom and I are about to leave on a two daycation. I think everyone should take a little driving vacation to celebrate the new, high gas prices - don't you?
Saturday, May 19, 2007
It's HOA Day!
Our annual spring one, which is opposite the annual fall one.
Hot topics today? A bunch of people want to start adding covenants to our charter. It's like an attack of the control freaks. I? like the status quo, wherein we are organized to maintain the private roads and private marina the HOA owns. Where people put their doghouse or park their off-road vehicles is kinda their business, IMO. I hate control freaks.
I mostly want to be sure they repair a culvert on the road which leads to my house. We've been discussing it for 1 & 1/2 years so far. Enough discussion - just fix the damn thing!
Hot topics today? A bunch of people want to start adding covenants to our charter. It's like an attack of the control freaks. I? like the status quo, wherein we are organized to maintain the private roads and private marina the HOA owns. Where people put their doghouse or park their off-road vehicles is kinda their business, IMO. I hate control freaks.
I mostly want to be sure they repair a culvert on the road which leads to my house. We've been discussing it for 1 & 1/2 years so far. Enough discussion - just fix the damn thing!
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