the view from sunday night or what a week it's been

it's been a full week. there have been tiara-wearing kittens (that got a whopping 252 likes on flickr, which is the most any of my flickr photos have ever gotten).

there were days of rain, and blustery winds, but also glorious, golden light spilled through in between showers, making it ok that it went from summer to fall overnight.

there were more photo sessions with kittens, where i came to understand why they say you shouldn't try to herd cats. they are at their most lovely and irresistible right now. i'm enjoying every yummy minute of them.

there was a bit of early access to the series 12 minifigures, which won't be in stores until october (hence the blurry photo). i've got 13 of the 16 and can't wait for them to be released so i can get the other 3.

there was teenage mutant ninja turtle homework to do. i do love the kind of homework i'm asked to do at my workplace, even tho' tmnt aren't my favorites. this little spaceship was mostly an upside down build, which was new for me. it's also quite a lot sturdier than it appears, which is cool.

we harvested the last batch of honey - boosting our total harvest for the year up to 90 kilos, a much better harvest than last year. now we just need a big box of new honey jars so we can fill them up and maybe even sell some.

and when we weren't eating shark burgers, the weekend was spent discussing the school options. we visited two schools on friday and both have their own advantages. so much so that we've not had a gut feeling that one is a better choice than the other. that's been a bit difficult for me, as i normally rely on my gut to tell me things and in this case, it's told me that we should definitely find a new school, but it isn't obvious which one is the best choice. the child, on the other hand, is sure which one she wants, so pending a couple of questions tomorrow morning, we are going to go with that one - she is, after all, the one who has to make the switch. it's up to us to make the logistics of it work and to ensure that she keeps her social circle intact, as well as building a new one. that one, we're not really worried about so much. probably, we'll ultimately choose the public school, because we pay an awful lot of taxes and education is something they should just get right. and the new school gives a good impression of getting it right (of course, we're currently easy to impress in light of how bad things are at her current school).

and the weekend ended with a long walk with husband in the forest. the rainy weather has been good for mushrooms, both the edible and the photogenic kinds (these are the latter). a long walk has a way of clearing out any last vestiges of restlessness and discontent. and now i'm ready for the week ahead.

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molly has been on a roll (of awesome posts) lately.

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me, probably not making all that much sense, 

in danish, on the radio last wednesday evening.

talking about what danishness is.

(hint: full calendars, booking people two months ahead,

being able to talk to the boss no matter your level in the org. 

and being afraid of conflict)

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i'm liking stuckinplastic

what's not to like? minifigs. life philosophies. lemonade. gratefulness.

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a heartwarming story of love that finally happened after 60 years.

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has amazon gone to the dark side?

secret 12 - i am a beauty queen failure

back in the early 90s, when i suddenly found myself thin and full of thoughts of revenge after a particularly nasty break-up, i decided to try to earn my way to the miss america pageant. i thought the best revenge on the bad boyfriend would be for him to have to see me on t.v. and realize what he had missed out on. it was a brilliant plan. except for one thing. although i tried TWICE, i utterly failed to make it to the miss america pageant. i could be miss state fair, but could not win my state pageant to save my life. looking back, there were a lot of reasons for this which i didn't understand at the time...mostly having to do with the fact that i had a brain and they weren't looking for that. i thought i would be the first smart miss america, you see. silly me.

i proved i could walk and sing

while wearing heels.

and i had a fabulous sparkly dress, don't you think?

and i especially love this very

absolutely fabulous patsy look...

note: this is a previously-revealed secret, but it might have escaped your attention since a lot of you came to MPC quite recently. i originally revealed it here. (do check it out to see how i rocked the tiara.) and i made a little list about it here.

secret 16 - my marilyn phase

back in the pageant days, i went through a marilyn monroe phase (doesn't everyone?). as you can see here, i even had a white dress like THE white dress. and the hair--the hair was pure, platinum marilyn. i even did a whole photo shoot as marilyn and some of those pictures are actually pretty good. but i don't have any of them here (they're clearly in the parents' basement). this photo is from an appearance at the state fair (i was miss state fair), hence the rockin' tiara. if only i'd been standing on a grate so my skirt would blow up....sigh.

what i've learned so far this week

what a week! i've been busy late into the night every night this week. and i thought i'd share a few things that i've learned along the way....

1. writing a whole 40+ page magazine more or less by yourself is not easy.
2. it's best if you never, ever let yourself think of it all at once (because it turns out that's quite breathtakingly paralyzing), but instead keep thinking of it in individual articles/items in a checklist. small, digestible chunks, in other words.
3. even if you think of it in individual pieces, it somehow does end up all fitting together, because it's all coming from your brain.
4. when you do a series of interviews on similar topics over several days, you should really type out everything from your notes after each interview. this will help you immeasurably later. (note to self: follow this advice in the future. for. sure.) if you don't, they can become jumbled up in your head and in your notes and take a whole lot longer to write into a coherent story.
5. a smooth stone, held in your hand occasionally for strength, helps your concentration.
6. chill/lounge music in the background is also good for concentration.
7. you will wake up in a cold sweat at 5:12 a.m., worried about whether you're ever going to get it all done.
8. you will get it all done.
9. you have to accept that some of it is good and some of it is dross. (dang, that is a seriously harsh word when i think about it.) but the fact is that there's only so much you can do to sex up propellers, hull coatings and propulsion systems. 
10. thrusters, on the other hand, are by their very nature, sexy as hell.
11. i thought briefly that i had lost my rock when i took sabin to the dentist, but after an only mildly panicked frantic search, i found it in the car. and felt very relieved. note to self: keep track of the damn rock.
12. a woman in england apparently kept the body of her mother in her freezer for 20 years. and i thought i was bad about cleaning out the freezer. i wonder if she had a special freezer dedicated to just that or if she kept food in there too.
13. jane fonda has been rendered unrecognizable by plastic surgery, but she's still sharp and funny (thanks david letterman (and TV2Zulu for broadcasting you when it's time to make lunch)).
14. there are people who are my age and who have children the age of my child who do not spend any time at all in cyberspace and yet they still think they exist. imagine that. i could not, however, verify their actual existence since i was unable to find them online.
15. those people who can't speak the language of blogging, facebook, twitter, flickr, linked-in, plaxo, tumblr, and social media in general are being sorely left behind and will undoubtedly soon divide off the human branch, like neanderthals. i mean, they can hardly even participate in a normal conversation.
16. in a fit of madness desire to inhabit a physical presence within my local community, i volunteered our house for a parents' party for all of the parents in sabin's class. sadly, we have nothing in common with them other than the fact that we managed to produce offspring at around the same time. and since the party is at our house, we won't be able to slip away. however, i did manage to make sure that the party will have an ABBA theme, so if i'm dressed as Agnete, eating a shrimp cocktail, and sipping a cold martini, i will no doubt care less.
17. i found my "U." it was in the basket with all of the DS games.
18. my light, bright dining room is a good place to work.
19. the pope has an iPhone. this means one of two things--either the iPhone is SO over or it's the only phone where you can get a direct line to god. if you were so inclined. which i suppose you are if you're the pope.
20. some people strongly fear being different or standing out or putting their 7-year-old on a trans-atlantic flight all by herself. i thought i feared those people, but i'm actually grateful for their existence, because it makes my existence more unique. and it always comes back to me. now would you please hand me my tiara?

what have you learned so far this week?

odds and ends

so many things to catch up on (800+ posts in the reader--come on guys, i thought we agreed you'd take it easy while i was away!). i decided i needed one of those random lists for which i am mildly famous. and it is, after all, a monday and monday is the best day for a list. it helps clear the head for the rest of the week.

: : yesterday, i ordered MOO postcards so that i too can be a postcrossing girl. i've only requested one address so far (you can do 5 at a time), because i decided to wait for my own photo postcards, tho' that first person is going to get one of my precious collection of those cool postcards you can pick up for free in copenhagen cafés. but please hurry up MOO! and thank you to janet and spudballoo and B for inspiring me to do this too. i do love getting real mail. and i'm a sucker for peer pressure.

: : speaking of getting real mail, this latest addition to my little desktop bowl of rocks arrived today. there was also a really cool green and purple necklace with a sparkly swirl on it (sparkles to match my tiara, of course). the rocks were two smooth, polished stones and four lovely pieces of amber with a little hole drilled in them. one of them even most decidedly has an eyeball. thank you, rxbambi, for thinking of me while you were out and about. this is one of those beautiful things that happen when you put yourself out there and blog your madness, other people start enabling it! :-) thank you, dahling! i promise to get my act together and get your little reward for guessing that book (dang, was it really that long ago?!?) sent your way this week!

: : i keep forgetting to go to flickr, but when i remembered today, i had an email inviting me to contribute to a cool new project. it's called footearth and if you too like to photograph your feet or the feet of others, you can contribute too! i went and signed up and put up three foot pictures immediately. so much fun when other people recognize your obsessions and invite you to indulge them. i hope someone starts robot earth next. :-)

: : we got a new furnace last year in february and the results are in. we have cut our gas bill for the year IN HALF!! yes, they are giving us back more than $2000 because our new furnace, in combination with our wood-burning stove/fireplace, was so much more efficient we used HALF the natural gas! i am dumbfounded. and really happy we made that decision. if you're considering a new furnace and have any doubts, all i can say is GO FOR IT!

: : sabin and i are enjoying the junie b. jones books. thanks for getting us started on them, moneek.

: : after my post earlier today i learned that i really, truly have some brilliant, awesome friends in this here blogosphere.  and i am so grateful to you for your friendship. it makes me feel that i can breathe again.  and breathing is good.