karl johan and other randomness

it's good to have mushroom hunting friends who call and say, "we've got way too many mushrooms, can you use some?" and then they give you a full 10 liter bucket of beautiful karl johans (aka porcini). i'm thinking mushroom tart. dried mushrooms. maybe with butter and garlic atop a steak.

* * *

i've been branching out in my podcast listening of late. i listened to a few episodes of on being. i can't remember what podcast directed me there. it's deep and explores big, existential questions, but the host, krista tippett is so incredibly pretentious and annoying that i had to delete it from my phone again. i also listened to most of the extant episodes of food52's burnt toast, but didn't subscribe. the hosts are ok, but some of the guests were, again, too pretentious for my tastes (that brooklyn beer guy was downright insufferable). it seems like pretentious doesn't do it for me at the moment. today, via the longform podcast i found my way to another round, a buzzfeed podcast. i'm not that far in, but am already enjoying it. no pretentions, plenty of slang that i'm utterly out of touch with, and funny stories told by hosts who are having a cocktail or two. what's not to like? what are you listening to these days?

* * *

what is the deal with random people who think it's ok to give you unasked for advice? "you should put the link in a different spot on that post." hmm, just because you weren't computer savvy enough to find the highlighted word and click it, isn't my problem. and don't pull "well, i have a mac" shit on me. i. have. a. mac. 

* * *

i dreamed that a tractor pushed husband's car (which was inexplicably a black SUV, rather than the white soccer mom van it is in reality) from in front of our house (which was a different house than our real house, but our house nonetheless), down a hill towards a lake (not our actual lake), where it almost, but didn't quite go in, because it swung around in a wide circle (despite having no driver at the wheel).  and then a raging elephant chased the guy in the tractor, who had for some reason gotten out of the tractor and was on foot, running back towards the house, pursued by said raging elephant. for once, i'm glad a meowing cat that wanted in out of the rain woke me up.

* * *

as counterintuitive as it sounds, i kind of always wanted to be a flight attendant, it's actually kind of a bucket list item for me (if i had a bucket list). and now it seems that delta is looking for danish-speaking flight attendants, so i might even qualify. and here i thought i'd end up working for SAS, which, as we know, stands for Sexy After Sixty. :-)  but perhaps it's not too late and i'm not quite to 60 yet!

a bit of tuesday random

i woke up feeling rested. i know that i had long, involved dreams (something about trying to drive a vehicle  up steep cliffs of very loose sand), but it feels like they worked out whatever it was that was going on in my head and i'm feeling calm, relaxed and, dare i say, hopeful. something shifted. a good night's sleep will do that for you.

i had some fun playing with my new little friends motorcycle with sidecar last evening. the sun peeked out for a few minutes at the very end of the day, but the air is disturbingly autumnal for july. we haven't had much of a summer at all and i fear that i will really miss it once autumn starts in earnest. it seems the climate really is changing. it grows harder and harder for meteorologists to predict, at least our danish ones, who have reached new levels (depths?) of sucking at their jobs. i swear they can't predict the weather more than about 5 minutes ahead and even then i have my doubts that they ever take a look out the window. seriously, if we all were that bad at our work, the whole world would grind to a halt.

in my zen, peaceful state of mind, i allowed myself a wander around on freunde von freunden, the marvelous berlin-based lifestyle website. and i find myself wanting to live a more artful, creative life. like these so-called urban nomads in hamburg. i wonder, can you be a rural nomad? don't forget to set one of their mixtapes playing in the background while you browse. it'll help keep that zen feeling...

* * *

modigliani's 1911 sketch of anna akhmatova

"And a lady who calls a great painter a suckling pig can hardly enlighten anyone." - from a marvelous 1975 piece (written originally in 1958 & 1964) on modigliani by the great russian poet anna akhmatova. oh, to have lived then, in those heady, artistic, experimental, avant-garde times of the 1910s.

* * *

some good came of all that wind last week - danish wind farms produced 140% of our electricity needs.

* * *

interesting thoughts on the adult coloring book phenomenon.

* * *

must go back to hamburg before the photography triennial ends.
i especially want to see this satellite exhibition.

* * *

reading this makes me want to go back to seattle. soon.

* * *

a case of friday arbness

my head is full of all sorts of random things, so in the interest of clearing it out so i can get on with some important work on a big project, i thought i'd share them with all of you...

~ there was a little dog with an underbite that was always in front of our main street grocery store when i was a kid. i hated that dog. he was terrifying. i think he belonged to one of the checkout ladies. to this day, when we want to indicate displeasure around here, we stick out our bottom teeth and do the "mean dog" face.

~ discussing ideas is probably my favorite thing to do in the whole world. it helps me think things through and get lots more clarity on the ideas. sometimes, i have so many, they jumble up in my head until i write about them or discuss them with others. i'm super lucky to have a variety of people that i can call on when i need to think things through. husband being the main one of them, but there are others. and they know who they are.

~ i got such a chuckle out of reading this tongue-in-cheek review of the new super heroes set with wonder woman and her invisible jet. in the comments you'll see that some of the other readers weren't quite so charmed. to them i say, relax and don't take things so seriously.

~ speaking of LEGO, this new blog is shaping up to have some intelligent views on our favorite plastic brick. ok, so there are only two posts so far, but both were well-argued and obviously carefully researched.

~ i'm so enjoying my kerosene fragrance sample tin. it's fun trying a new scent every day! i'm wearing copper skies today which, despite its lush description of amber and tobacco, is definitely not me. it starts off with a dusty, powdery toilet paper kind of vibe and deepens into the kind of sickly sweet scent of a chennai slum. i will allow that it probably smells great on someone else with very different chemistry than me. and less memories of sickly sweet chennai slums. kind of amazing how scent can call up memories quite unbidden.

~ our friends at #stuckinplastic reported on some troubling take down notices received by some legographers on red bubble this week. i wonder what the implications of this are on the enormous community of people out there taking photos of minifigs? once we buy them, can't we play with them however we wish?

~ i realized today (yes, i'm a bit slow) that facebook bores the shit out of me.

~ we had this amazing frost all day today (see above photo of of the unicorn sparkle fairy - hey, i made a MOC!). :-) it's the kind of frost that comes from a freezing fog. and it's the first time this winter of ours has had any beauty in it whatsoever. it was a welcome change.

~ it's the child's birthday on sunday. and she's off on a one-day ski trip to sweden at midnight tonight, but will be home to have cake on sunday. i can't believe she's nearly 14.

i think that will about do it, so i shall wish you all an awesome weekend. remember to stop and photograph the frost, will you? and always carry a minifig in your pocket.

50 things about right now (mostly awesome)

i totally copycatted was inspired by molly's 50 things about right now post.

1.  in a word, kittens. two of them, tho' we thought she had 6 in there, her belly was so big.
2.  sunshine breaking through.
3.  working at home.
4.  sitting for too long in one spot when i work at home.
5.  building excitement over our coming holiday in london.

7.  flowers in bloom all over the place.

8. did i mention the two perfect, tiny kittens?

9. awesome projects at work.

10. great people to work with on awesome projects at work.

11.  a trip on the (rather distant) horizon to seattle and then new york.

12. yes, me, in new york.

13. for the first time ever.

14. cold white wine in the garden.

15. and the odd gin & tonic.

16. the coolest business cards ever. and i have some.
17. long, light summer nights.
18. being invited to a party this weekend.
19. horses with fly fringe attached to their halters.
20. the antics of our pigs.
21. the child hanging out with her good friends.
22. the awesomeness being submitted to the turtle competition we're running on eurobricks.
23. these are the ultra-creative people i get to work with. all. the. time.

24. pinterest.

25. looking forward to molly's kittens.

26. yes, that's more kittens.

27. awesome neighbors.

28. summer visits from friends.

29. rewatching friends from the beginning on netflix.

30. shark burgers for dinner.

31. salmon burgers for dinner.

32. burger burgers for dinner.

33. berries to pick.

34. the strawberries are done.

35. the child buying a nikon D7100 with her confirmation money.

36. arranging lunch dates with friends in london.

37. and tours of oxford with other friends.

38. packing up the "dining" room so it can become sabin's room.

39. reluctantly. because packing all those books away again feels wrong.

40. our independent, awesome feral hen keeping her babies safe up a tree every night.

41. overusing the word awesome.
42. but it's because everything is pretty much awesome.
43. looking at the calendar to find the best time for a weekend in rome.
44. and maybe one in berlin.
45. did i mention we're going to london?

46. getting to write at work too.

47. mowing the lawn.

48. strawberry shrubs.

49. staying up late.

50. sitting in the golden hour light with husband in the garden, sipping a cocktail and talking about our days, the future, living abroad, the angle of the roof, and what to do with all these cats.

* * *

seriously awesome reflection photos by kiripi katembo siku

they are stunning and so full of subtext and depth.

a big thank you to molly for sharing them with me.

the view from sunday night or how i had antlers before they were cool

the air was heavy and it felt all weekend like it was waiting to storm. i(t) never stormed. denmark is very restrained that way. in south dakota, a good old fashioned thunderstorm would have blown through and cleared out that pesky, heavy waiting and left it cool and rinsed clean. no such luck here. the air is still heavy and too warm for sleeping. we can't even have the windows properly open as molly is in heat and desperate to get out to the papa kitty. we think she's had enough kittens for one year, so she's got to stay inside until it's over. i don't want to fix her yet as i want one more batch of kittens next spring - no sense bringing those good minnesota cat genes over here and not taking advantage of them properly. but she (and perhaps i) have been through enough for this year, so she has to wait until spring. she's lucky i love her or she'd have driven me completely crazy with her meowing and cajoling to go outside and rendezvous with the papa kitty.

i went on an uncharacteristic cleaning frenzy today, dusting, tidying, rearranging, organizing, vacuuming spider webs (they say spiders are a sign of a healthy inner climate in a house, so we're very healthy, let me tell you). i wonder how those spiders are all getting along inside the bag in our vacuum cleaner. do different kinds of spiders like each other? it feels good that things are tidy and clean. it gives me that essential sunday evening feeling that leaves me ready to face the week ahead. it's the last full week before school starts, so i want to spend some time together with sabin, who has been flitting off with one friend and another to summer houses and car races.

have you noticed that my photos and my words are quite disconnected? i took the photos after vacuuming up the spiders, otherwise, they would have been more connected. now i'll try to connect them a little bit more. i was out picking this bouquet of verbena by the road when i ran into our cat tiger (also known as pelle haleløse (pelle the tail-less) as he came home last summer without most of his tail) out there, relaxing in the grass and trying to stay cool. i was chatting away to him when some people came by, walking their dogs and thinking i was insane to be chatting animatedly with myself in english (they couldn't see the cat in the grass). oh well, they'll chalk it up to the crazy canadian, since it's rumored in the area that i'm canadian. i can live with that. oddly, i felt no compulsion whatsoever to explain and no embarrassment. i wonder if that is the first sign of madness?

i almost didn't have the heart to throw out these fetchingly dried daisies, but after photographing them, i replaced them with fresh ones. i almost think they're prettier when they're withered and dried. i suspect there's a lesson in that somewhere. or maybe i'm feeling philosophical after reading my fourth douglas kennedy book in as many weeks. tara suggested the first one (pursuit of happiness) to me on goodreads and that got me hooked. i devoured state of the union in about 24 hours. it's my favorite one yet. all of the ones i've read so far (i'm now on number 5 - the big picture) are about people whose choices led them feel they've lived the wrong life. they make me feel like writing, tho' i finish each one reluctantly, sad to leave behind characters who quickly come to seem like friends. i've got several more on order from the library. his style and characters suit my mood of the moment perfectly, tho' i feel far from having lived the wrong life.

antlers are everywhere on pinterest at the moment. i got this little skull last fall at the boy scout flea market for 20 kroner. i don't know what kind of deer it is, but i love it. all of the deer in this country are freakishly small and this one is no exception. i'd like to think that i was way ahead of that antler trend.

so far today...

i have:

~ broken up a serious rabbit fight.
~ fed the animals.
~ written some on my proposal.
~ picked my brain.
~ made a new friend.
~ stalked my new friend's pinterest boards.
~ folded laundry. and hung some up to dry.
~ downloaded iBooks Author.

i haven't:

~ gotten properly dressed.
~ combed my hair.
~ put on contacts.
~ yet played with iBooks Author.

i want:

~ a fainting couch.
~ a secret hideaway in the garden.

small madnesses:

~ changing all the capital letters to lower case when i repin.
~ mixing grains for bunny and chicken food (they contain some, but not all of the same ingredients).
~ even numbers.
~ talking in animal voice.

clearing my head

it's cold (-18° C this morning!) and snowy, but sunny and glittering out there in recent days. i find i am utterly unable to feel anything other than energetic and optimistic when the sun is shining like this. it's one of those weeks where ideas and just thoughts are popping into my head faster than i can grab them, so i've got to just get some of the more random thoughts out here on the screen so i can settle down:

~ i don't understand the purpose of having an open house if when people come, you're not actually going to be particularly open towards them. on sunday, we went to visit a nearby riding school that's reopening under new management. they had an open house and there were lots of people in attendance, but do you think that any of them talked to us? did anyone say hello? did anyone offer us a bit of paper with a schedule of the available lessons on it? no, they did not. does this make us likely to rush into signing up for lessons there? or moving our horse over there? no it does not. my question is, why bother to have an open house if you don't take the key word - "open" seriously?

~ apparently, saying out loud that you have a good life and that you appreciate it will make people unfollow you. does this mean people prefer strife and negativity?

~ there's nothing quite so relaxing as ironing a big pile of tea towels.

~ why (and when?) did they move everything around in power point(less) and render it unrecognizable and unusable? (and why am i trying to use it anyway? microsoft is so 2003.)

~ i loathe that song city boy by donkeyboy, yet i can't get it out of my head. tho' i think they're actually singing "underneath my skin there's an eagle," it sounds like "underneath my skin there's a negro," which just seems quite politically incorrect. sabin's friend thought it was "underneath my skin there's a meatball," which is more amusing.  and that is a very weird, low-budget homemade video, don't you think?

~ i just had to use a calculator to figure out which anniversary we'll be celebrating on sunday (our 13th).


and that about does it. happy tuesday, one and all!

some days are like that

it's been a weird monday. i was writing a whole other blog post and then a bunch of stuff wanted to come out and it kept clouding up what i wanted to write, so i just have to write this and get it out of the way. some days are like that.

~ moving horses will always take longer than you think.

~ australia is the worst movie i've ever seen. period. everyone involved in it should be taken out back and shot. especially nicole kidman. and whoever put together those backgrounds against the stuff shot in the studio, they should be tied up and made to watch the film repeatedly for the rest of their lives. even if their eyes have to be propped open with those metal thingies from a clockwork orange.

~ if you're a nurse and you have to take a swab halfway down someone's throat, perhaps just a teency weency little explanation or maybe even a "hello" before you come at them with the extra long q-tip would be in order. just sayin'.

~ if you need to get an x-ray of your lungs because you've been coughing for three weeks straight, go at lunchtime. there's no waiting.

~ people who write knitting books leave out a lot of stuff that beginners will have questions about. like how to remember whether that last row you did was knit or purl, or how to tell if you forget.

~ it seems that divorces come in bunches...another of sabin's classmates' parents are splitting up. she says it's the 6th in her class. apparently marriages fall like dominoes. i'm pleased to not know any of the whys and wherefores of any of them, but feel sad for the kids.

~ i have to make 600 (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration) cupcakes tomorrow. i'm thinking rainbows.

ok, i think that about does it. now i'll get back to the post i was really writing. some days are like that.

so i've been thinking...

~ everyone should go to the beach at least once a month, just to clear their heads.

~ about whether you can eat the seaweed found on our northerly beaches.

~ and if so, which kind?

~ about the great wars of the last century (i'm reading ken follett's fall of giants, which is set in WWI) and the residues they have left behind.

~ about the need for an editor. and perhaps also a translator. or maybe just some english lessons. unless they really did want people to line up their dogs...

~ that sometimes the best course of action on a sink full of dirty dishes is to pour a glass of wine, turn out the light and go settle into the big chair with a good book. after all, those dishes aren't going anywhere.

~ leaving one square of toilet paper on an otherwise empty roll does not excuse you from changing it.

* * *

what are you thinking about in this liminal week, while we wait for the new year?

time to clear my head

i'm thinking about...



...how much i adore this photograph that i took today. it's one of my favorites in a very long time.

...how many hours i've wasted that i'll never have back.

...totally changing around the living room.

...painting the inside of some drawers a surprising color.

...how lulled we were into thinking there was real summer on the horizon, only to be (cold)snapped back to danish summer reality.

...a sewing/design problem.

...really being a vegetarian.

...the different reactions stress causes - sleeplessness, excessive counting, a sore jaw, curtness, snapping at loved ones, unarticulated and unarticulatable anger, cleaning frenzies (i could go on, but i'll stop here, since it begins to look like i'm in need of stress treatment).

...how badly the garden needs weeding.

...reseeding some of the things that didn't seem to come up and whether it's too late for that.

...what a great week sabin has had with her friend maria.

...how much i love the design (of the front page, not the little scrolly bits in the actual page windows) and (dare i say it) the down-to-earthness of GOOP.

...how unintelligent chickens seem to be (standing on top of each other up on a little ledge where they're not meant to be, but apparently desire very greatly to be).

...how on earth this can be true.  and is sarah palin shitting her pants now that bachmann is taking her flaky inarticulate freak for president role?

...whether i can apply for asylum in denmark if this lunatic beats obama (thankfully it's early days, so this may not be necessary).

...how i know i read and really liked jonathan franzen's the corrections, but i'm reading it again and find i have little or no recollection of it and am a bit mystified by the passages which i underlined on the first reading. i must have been someone else then.

...how much of a bust today really was. and how i'll never have it back.

...if i get a good night's sleep, tomorrow will be a fresh new day and i can begin again.

scenes from a rainy garden

~ between showers, progress is being made on the chicken coop (which is actually more of a palace). we're calling it chez poulet, since it's going to be quite posh what with the fancy door husband made for it.

~ sabin is giving her bunny solskin extra lots of time today since she seems so heartbroken at the presence of the tiny new bunnies.  either that or she wants babies of her own.

~ tomorrow is the strawberries and honey event at our bee school. we're close to "slinging" our first honey. our bee mentor says there's at least 15 kilos in our best beehive. i'm looking forward to having that honey in my tea.

~ tho' i'm tired of rainy days, they do make the garden grow and the flowers bloom and the weeds easy to weed. there's always a silver lining if you look for it.

~ making ciabatta bread for the first time. working all of that olive oil in during the proving stage is fun.

~ it's good to have my iMac back - it got sent in for a checkup, as the extra warranty i'd bought was running out soon and i wanted to be sure i'd taken full advantage. it got a new display, a new graphics card and a new hard drive. so it's pretty much a new computer now! it should be good to go for a long time to come.

~ i'm a little mystified by words with friends, the scrabble-like game we're all playing on our iPhones. i think it's quite arbitrary in the words it allows and doesn't allow. i've taken to just throwing my letters in practically any old order and seeing if it takes them. i'm surprised when it does. and sometimes when it doesn't. but it's fun to play with friends in north america.

~ i'm reading gary schteyngart's super sad true love story and i'm afraid i'm not hip enough to understand it. the hipster language is kinda driving me crazy. have any of you read it?

here's wishing you all a lazy and relaxing weekend.

happy friday

no one reads on friday anyway, so i can write what i want...


~ i love when the rapeseed fields are totally that buzzing color of yellow that almost hurts your eyes.

~ i adore sleeping in.

~ i'm so glad we moved matilde to the stable where sabin's taking lessons. the people are great and sabin's going to come a long, long way and the horse will finally prove to be worth the investment.

~ i'm tired of windy, stormy weather.

~ i've actually come up with a quilt of my own design that i'll show you soon.

~ this both amuses me and makes me squirm.

~ despite the fact that everyone and their dog now has an iPhone, it doesn't put me off them.

~ our girl bunny, solskin, is really pissy.  i think it's because she's not getting any.

~ i'm not really a phone call person.

~ pinterest is addictive initially, but it tapers off...

~ my sister says it's pointless, but she's wrong. mostly because she's not redecorating/rebuilding/remodeling.

~ she doesn't realize she could pin only urban decay.

~ is it just me or has may gone on forever?

*  *  *

and here's wishing you all a happy weekend.

if you're hungry, and your weather's good...check this.

random reflections

~ who knew jason mraz blogged. or was so deep?

~ my sister seems to think i'm in need of a joyologist. i think what i really need is a week of steady sunshine.

~ last night i dreamed i was a jackie kennedy-esque (in her bouvier years) girl reporter, armed with an iPhone instead of a bulky greyflex (tho' in my dream it was a brownie).

~ i'm amused by this.

~ and these are just so cool.

~ (why are all the bloggy people i stalk like in south africa?)

~ i had the most wonderful, intense conversation on tuesday about living life intensely and passionately and in a most engaged manner. i'm still processing it and trying to write it. but i think in a way i'm not ready to let go of it yet. because often once i write something, it means letting it go and it doesn't haunt me or resonate through my thoughts anymore in the same way. so i'm having trouble making the words come.

~ a juice of carrot, apple, orange and ginger, fresh from the juicer will do more for a headache than 2 ibuprofen.

~ sabin is convinced there's the ghost of an old man in the house. she heard him cough and he closed the door to her bedroom (which currently lacks a doorknob, so she had to climb out her window). i swear i thought i heard him snoring the other evening. but so far, that's the only sign of him i'm seen or heard. as for sabin, she's not afraid at all, but very matter-of-fact about the whole thing.

~ i've exchanged MOO cards with a couple of friends lately and they totally make me happy. what is it about those colorful little half-sized bits of card that is so joyful? is it that they're unique because they're made of one's own photos? colorful? what is it? i think it's got something to do with the size, tho' pia sent regular business card-sized ones as well and they made me equally happy. in any case, i do love MOO.

random list of happy things

happy right now...

~ about bright colors of paint in sabin's room.

~ that in my dreams, i can confidently use parts from one polaroid to repair another.

~ that in my dreams i apparently have a  polaroid.

~ that the t.v. is off and the only sounds i can hear are the cat purring and myself typing.

~ that i have a big stack of fabric i just cut to begin a new quilt (#3 this year) tomorrow. this one's in red.

~ that my sister's friends are way weirder than my friends (case in point: one of them, who is not jewish, is holding a bar mitzvah party for her husband, who is also not jewish. isn't that just weird? and possibly objectionable or at the very least culturally obtuse.).

~ new moo cards are on their way.

~ that i did all of the items on my list today except for one (and no, there were not only two items on the list).

~ that matilde (our horse) is gleefully covered in mud and loving it.

~ there was a bit of sunshine today.

~ i went running this afternoon and am amazed how much energy it gave me.

~ and i didn't die of a heart of attack by the side of the road (you know i usually run only when chased).

~ sunset well after 5 p.m.

~ bloggy lists to clear my head.

hope your day was full of small happinesses.

seriously?

melting down

disclaimer: i have a knot in my back that just won't quit (i think it's from hunching over the sewing machine for a week) and it's making me generally out of sorts. especially as i'm a little alarmed at how much ibuprofen i've taken for it for the past few days and i'm trying not to take any today.  the items in this post may reflect this rather crabby out-of-sortsness. you have been warned.

* * *

i may have to do some unfriending on facebook. not because i can't take dissent (one might even say i thrive on it), but when the dissent is so ridiculously thick as to suggest that the new york times is a purveyor of "hate rheteric (sic)" simply because the person in question disagrees with their political leaning,  and apparently reason and intellect, that's a bit much for me. but mostly i might have to unfriend because i believe someone who is a teacher should be able to spell rhetoric.

* * *

and while we're on the subject of free speech(!), i can recommend this very well written blog post. and stay to check out betsy's blog - there's good stuff there about changing perspective.

* * *

thank you to lynne for her continued posting of the journey sea shepherd is making, protecting whales from japanese "research" (aka murderous whaling) vessels in the southern ocean. i'm riveted by these stories. lynne's son is onboard one of the vessels, but thanks to her links, i think i'm nearly as engaged in sea shepherd's crusade as she is.

* * *

[this whole section should be read with your teeth clenched.] i wonder if anyone in this house will ever put back the scissors in the kitchen drawer where they belong when they're finished using them in some far corner of the house. i tell you, if one day, i am at last driven over the edge, it will be because i can't find the friggin' scissors when i need them.

* * *

on another less ranty note, if you, like me, love japanese pattern books, here's some great advice on working with them if you, like me, don't know japanese.

* * *

these loose engrams are making me smile. in that knowing, wise way. but don't expect to be able to comment, you'll just have to nod to yourself.  and enjoy.

i am thinking about maps and topographies.

* * *

i'm doing a new 365 project and you can find it here on my new tumblr:
365 moments of perfect clarity

updated: apparently the blog hop thing below (which i've never tried before, nor even seen), is from a post a couple of weeks ago (started by jillsy, #1 on it - and should have been about balance). i saw it on lynne's blog and only read her post and the second to last person on the list before her, and balance had already dropped off (or else i simply didn't get it).  i think it's pretty funny, actually, because it's kinda like those games you played as a child, where you whisper something to your neighbor and send it around the circle and by the time it gets back to you, it's nothing like what you said. i think i rather like that about the blogosphere.

seven things about which i despair...

...that i will ever find the right shampoo.

...that this house will never be fixed.

...that once this house is fixed, we will not have (but still want) another Big Project.

...that i will never have the courage to pursue a life of creativity.

...the 12 hour flight on my horizon on saturday. in monkey class.

...that i give too much of my energy to all of the wrong things.

...cheap toilet paper.


this is a variation on a list of 7 random things that the always-inspiring kristina did recently on her blog. i added the despair thing myself. because it's friggin' dark here this time of year.  if you want to play too, just let me know, i love lists.

this girl: an update

thanks to some hints from bambi and her sister barb and their recent this girl posts and because i'm finally feeling like myself again, it seemed like it was time for an update of the this girl post (which, to give credit where credit is due, was started by the fabulous gillian ever so long ago).

~ hates righteousness, but can be pretty righteous at times.

~ needs more courage.

~ needs more discipline.

~ needs more practice.

~ needs less stuff.

~ needs to focus.

~ loves rocks and cameras and feathers and books and art supplies.

~ takes photos every day.

~ hates to capitalize. especially i.

~ talks too loud.

~ gets what she wants.

~ has a sneaking suspicion that it will all work out.

~ likes robots and eyeballs and embroidery floss and brand new pens.

~ wears blue nail polish.

~ watches too much LA Ink, Miami Ink and What Not to Wear on Discovery Travel & Living.

~ has a list of names to submit to What Not to Wear (with Clinton & Stacey).

~ should probably herself be on that list.

~ is superior and humble. haughty and kind. snobby and forgiving. messy and obsessive compulsive. thoughtful and oblivious. one big mass of contradictions. and likes it that way.

~ loves cats and horses and bunnies.

~ wants pigs and a few chickens.

~ goes to bed too late every single night.

~ loves her iPhone. and iMac. and iPad. and her nikon(s).

~ wishes stuff didn't matter so much.

~ wishes sometimes she didn't care so much.

~ is glad she cares so much. because it's what makes her who she is.

monday wonderings or where is global warming when you need it?

monday wonderings...

~ why are weekends only two days?

~ how did we not notice that the house is crumbling to dust in places?

~ will i survive another day without internet at home?

~ why do i still need my winter coat in may? (aka where is the global warming when you need it?)

~ what are we going to do with all those strawberries when they come?

~ how did we live without a horse for so long?

~ will i ever truly be done with the laundry?

~ why do people drive like insane maniacs on country roads?

~ why does the coffee around here taste like dishwater?

~ how/when did nokia so lose the plot on phone design?

~ who knew matilde was such a glorious jumper?

what are you wondering this monday?

weirdness on a wednesday

is that what porcupine eggs look like?

: : still laughing about the fact that last week i was told that i didn't get a job i interviewed for because i lacked experience in a multi-national company working across cultures. huh? and even weirder, the woman who told me this had met me and talked to me for nearly two hours. and a lot of the conversation centered on all of the places i had traveled and nationalities i had worked with for my work with two different multi-national companies from 2001-2007. oh, and the past two years where i've worked in a country other than the one in which i live. oh, not to mention that i've had my entire working life outside the country of my birth. cross culture, my ass. note to self: do not speak danish in an interview ever again.

: : i found a way to cure my stiff neck. i went down and confronted the local manager of Fona, the store where i bought my macbook pro, about the completely ludicrous quote they've given me on fixing it. the funny little man and his failed hairplugs lied to my face, so i didn't get satisfaction on the MBP issue (which i will explain in a different, much more ranty post in the near future), but the adrenalin the whole encounter gave me fixed my neck right up. 

: : trying to convince husband to restage some cute pictures from his childhood, a la this. thus far, i have failed. tho' it wasn't the picture above i was trying to convince him to restage. there's another one of him at about age 3, standing stark naked in the backyard on a quilt. funnily enough, he won't go for an updated version of that one.

: : yesterday, it went from heavy snow to brilliant sunshine in the space of about an hour. i'll take some more of the sunshine, please.

: : my wednesday is only going to get weirder. will undoubtedly share more of that later. it's going to be anthropology, i tell you. observing the natives in their natural habitat. just like a good cross-cultural girl should...

troubling me right now...

it's the end of the year. it's the end of the first decade of the 21st century. there's a big climate conference happening right here in town. it's been snowing for about 24 hours straight. christmas is coming. and all of this raises a lot troubling thoughts...

: : can it still snow if there's global warming? because i like snow. and frankly, where i live, i also kinda like global warming (good for growing grapes).

: : how/why did i convince myself it would be fun to make homemade pickled herring?

: : why didn't i finish my nephew's t.v. cuddle blankie in time to get it sent?

: : what is the deal with santa claus? i mean seriously, who decided that a scary, fat stranger in a disguise who likes to get small children to sit on his lap and who sneaks into your house in the middle of the night and eats all of your milk and cookies was a good idea?

: : why isn't anyone really protesting over all of the preventative detentions of climate protesters? and if that's now ok, what are we going to preventatively detain people for next?

: : will i ever really learn how to knit?

: : what ARE those supposedly "bio" thingies i bought for the fireplace made of anyway? and why do they smell so strange?

: : will i ever get back my photography mojo?

: : that the clever hopenhagen thing is sponsored by the likes of coca-cola, SAP and siemens...

: : if the answer to life, the universe and everything is indeed 42, what will happen when i turn 43?

: : isn't carbon trading just the new junk bonds?

: : those african guys who supposedly walked out of the climate talks were only gone for an hour and a half. are we sure they didn't just slip out for a bite to eat?

: : why am i suddenly getting a bunch of suspicious spam-like emails from places who want me to list them on my blog or do giveaways for them? and is everyone else getting those too? and why do they try to present it as if they'll be sending traffic my way when it's really that they want me to send traffic theirs? please people, give me some credit for having a few functioning brain cells.

: : where was the cat first domesticated? and the horse? and the dog? and when?

: : will the packages i've sent this week get there in time? and why didn't i send them sooner?

this is what i get for having too much caffeine late in the day...