Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Linky Link



1. What insect are you most afraid of? Feel free to post a picture.
2. What is the greenest/most organic thing about you or that you do?
3. Tell me about a recurring dream that haunts you.
4. Have you ever missed a flight? What were the circumstances?
5. What do you consider your best feature?
6. What was the last concert you went to?
7. Describe the most embarrassing church moment you ever experienced.
8. Are you a whistler, hummer or singer?
9. George Washington Carver said, "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in." What is God saying to you through nature today, or this very minute?
10. On September, 1, 1752, the Liberty Bell arrived in Philadelphia. What memorable event will take place in your life on September 1, 2010?
11. Taco Bell or the Liberty Bell? (You must choose.)
12. Do you believe men and women can have purely platonic friendships?

Horse Play

A couple weeks ago I went horse back "riding" with a friend. I put "riding" in quotes because I am terribly afraid of riding horses. But when the opportunity presented itself, I thought I should be brave & see if I could possibly conquer my fear. But, nope. I'm still afraid. My sweet horse, Ash, was the bestest horse ever though. He was a slow moving, lolligagging, wonderfully mellow beast. And I didn't really "ride". I walked. Which was perfect for me.
Her feet, my feet, horse feet.

I'm finding that if I don't have my weekly or regular adventures I feel rather lost. They are inspiration to me. And they fill me up with good stuff. And besides, I get to hang out with my friends. Just last Sunday, Susan & I went for another random drive. We ate dinner while we rode along, dining on Diet Dr. Pepper & caramel corn. We stopped by a cemetery for a walk. We drove down random dirt roads, trying to chase down the perfect spot for a spendlid sunset view. We were too late, so instead we got out of the car & did cartwheel after cartwheel & jumpy photos galore. There were little frogs everywhere, blending in with the dirt. They looked like pebbles hopping along. We're even pretty positive we discovered some dinosaur bones. But we accidentally left them behind, so we don't have ACTUAL proof anymore.


A gravestone of a baby named Mary Maxine Fortner, 1939-1940, decorated with marbles.

Shy little sunflower.
I don't think I'll ever get tired of spontaneity. And just having simply no agenda.

Comment Amnesty Time

Uh-oh.

It has happened again.  I find myself in Comment Overload.  Which, as my daughter would say, is a good problem to have.

Right now I'm on overload timewise, between getting the school year started and the upcoming move of my husband's office into our home.

And when I look at my email box and see there are so many comments that I appreciate so much and really want to respond to individually, and know that there just isn't time right now and I don't know when there will be, I start to hyperventilate just a tad. 

And so, once again, I must claim a period of Comment Amnesty.  I need to just delete that comment build-up and start fresh.  Forgive me, please.




Good Hair Day


Elijah Boo, a Few Days Later

Coloring with Andy


Before becoming a Pop Art icon, during the 1950s Andy Warhol worked as a successful illustrator
in New York producing hundreds of drawings for advertising, record companies and fashion magazines. 
In 1961, right around the time of his first Campbell Soup paintings, the Edelman company commissioned 
Warhol to create a large format coloring book to give as a gift to its clients' children for Christmas. 
Andy drew a series of delightfully whimsical illustrations using his typical blotted line technique, 
which he claimed to have discovered accidentally when he spilled ink onto a sheet of paper 
and reproduced the stain motif by applying a second sheet onto it.









A Coloring Book was reprinted in 2007 by the French Editions Palette.



Monday, August 30, 2010

RD 12 for the Week of 8.30.10



Read today, post tomorrow and link here tomorrow.

1. What insect are you most afraid of? Feel free to post a picture.
2. What is the greenest/most organic thing about you or that you do?
3. Tell me about a recurring dream that haunts you.
4. Have you ever missed a flight? What were the circumstances?
5. What do you consider your best feature?
6. What was the last concert you went to?
7. Describe the most embarrassing church moment you ever experienced.
8. Are you a whistler, hummer or singer?
9. George Washington Carver said, "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in." What is God saying to you through nature today, or this very minute?
10. On September, 1, 1752, the Liberty Bell arrived in Philadelphia. What memorable event will take place in your life on September 1, 2010?
11. Taco Bell or the Liberty Bell? (You must choose.)
12. Do you believe men and women can have purely platonic friendships?

Monday Matticchio

Back from the Sea


Sorry for disappearing and missing my usual Sunday appointment, 
I was away at the sea and stayed a bit longer than expected... 




Russian master animator Alexandr Petrov used his fingertips and slow-drying oil paints 
on glass sheets to create his wonderful adaptation of Hemingway's The old man and the sea
It took him over two years to paint and shoot each of the 29,000+ frames composing the
20-minute short, which went on to receive the 1999 Academy Award for Animated Short Film 
and the 2000 Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

On a different note, congratulations to Lisa, who was randomly picked by my daughter 
as the winner of Animalarium's first giveawayPlease send me your address and  
I will put in the mail your copy of The Owl Tree right away!

Week in Review: August 23-29

I get this feeling sometimes: I have so much to do, so many ideas in my head, so many things that need checking off my list. And yet, I do none of them. I just don't know where to start & I feel paralyzed. I know my cleaning & organizing efforts last week AND this week are a prelude to the great things I want to come this next season. Preparing the way, so to speak. A sort of red carpet laid out for my creative thoughts. You know how when your physical space is cluttered, you also feel cluttered inside? Yeah, it's like that. It's just unfortunate that cleaning is my least favorite thing to do. Well, actually, it's MORE unfortunate that I'm such an awesome mess-maker.

Click HERE for a photo play-by-play. 

My How You've Grown!


Blackberry, at four-and-a-half months, with Joe


Sunday, August 29, 2010

Catchin' Up After the Weekend

Wow, it goes so fast, doesn't it? No, I'm not talking about the weekend so much as the time between my trips to Wowmart. Yes, I spent part of my precious weekend at the Wowmarts.

Now let's proceed.

Friday night, I attended my own "Friday Night Lights" event: the two bitter high school rivals in our town suited up for the city championship. Jorge and I went with our long-time friends, Kris and Darrell, whose daughter's wedding reception table I set on fire recently. (May or may not have, the jury is still out.)

It was fun to sit next to Kris and reminisce about our cheerleading days, when we actually wore Spaulding saddle oxfords. LOVED my oxfords. Here we are on my parents' porch in Sept. 1978. We are sophomores. And here I am cheering at a pep rally. And here is the handsome Jorge wearing Rebel red.

"Our" team managed to beat the other team 54 to 6, but it was a shutout until the 4th quarter! Go, mighty Rebels! I'm happy to report to you that the school song moves are still intact. I could jump right up here and show you, just like I have shown my kids before, but I don't know if you could stand the 47 year old awesomeness that I ooze. I mean exude.

Saturday morning, I went to Kristin's cross country meet at a school about an hour away. Here she is, completely within the frame and everything! You'll recall last year I could not manage a single picture of my child completely within the frame. I might get a foot or flying pony tail or the complete person of someone else's kid, but not mine. Here she is, proving that my kid does indeed run XC. The reason you're seeing her in total here is that someone else took this shot!












This is Kristin's friend, Hannah. Look how sweet Hannah is, to lean in toward me as I hug her for this picture. What a nice girl, Hannah. Thank you for not seeing me as a leper.








Here is my daughter, Kristin, who performs a magic trick when I hug her, where she turns into an ironing board which cannot absorb any sort of embrace or emotion. She's like an ironing board covered in one of those Teflon covers, deflecting me and my motherly love. Oh well. I just keep side-hugging away at my cardboard cutout daughter.




Saturday night, I watched a movie I've always wanted to see, "Ubreakable," with Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson. Spooky, but intriguing. I should have known when the credits showed M. Night Shyamalan why I was hooked from the beginning. It's all that "whisper" acting in his movies that gets me, among other things. Emotions are usually underplayed, which heightens the tension for me. All of his movies have a strong spiritual component. "Signs" is my favorite contemporary movie, written, produced and directed by Shyamalan.

Sunday, I went to church, then I went to an award ceremony where Kristin received a youth leadership award in our community:






Finally, I volunteered where I'm normally paid to work, Oneighty, because Jorge shared his life story, quite riveting and sad, with about 100 students. He did a great job sharing just enough information, God used him, and I was very proud to be his partner in life/helpmate.

After that, Dear Reader (conjures a teeny bopper with curlers in her hair lying on her polka dot bedspread in the 1960s writing in her diary), I came in to write just to you.

So that was my weekend--how was yours??

funny baby parent

funny baby parent....

Funny fruit

Funny fruit....

Funny horse

Funny horse....

Cafe Con Leche

The way this blog has been recently, you might be wondering, "Is she still a quilter?" 

I've sort of been wondering it myself.

Matt and Carrie were married this past month and their housewarming party is next weekend.  One of those "no gifts, please" events. 

Well, you know me, never have been good and following directions.  Ever since second grade, actually.

So this is their present.  Coffee With Cream or Cafe Con Leche, whether you prefer English or Spanish.  The blocks were the yield of a swap I organized a few years ago.  There was not a single bad block in the batch.  I saw the brown print at the LQS and thought it would go well with the blocks.  Then I saw the binding fabric, which really bowled me over, even though as a matter of principle, I almost never use a light binding.

It's done and ready to gift!  Have a lovely life together, dear Carrie and Matt!




A to Z Bible Story Lesson- Letter A






A- Adam & Eve





Saturday, August 28, 2010

Coen Vs. Franco

Over Beck Rally.



Springfield rates almost right smack in the middle of the 200 largest broadcasting markets in the USA. As a result, whenever someone of real talent appears in our Valley TV media they often quickly disappear to somewhere else, usually the Boston area. However one first rate talent who has stuck around is WGGB-TV's Scott Coen. How long? Here's a video that has surfaced of Coen doing a West Springfield armwrestling story he reported in 1993.



This is Coen as he looks today.



Coen in a playful mood.



Over the years Coen has evolved into a real multi-media artist, doing not just his TV gig but also doing sports updates on WHMP and ESPN. He has his own Masslive column My Wide World which is more or less about everything and anything Coen wants it to be about. Sometimes he strays into politics, such as these recent comments on today's conservative rally organized by TV host Glenn Beck.

I wasn't going to weigh in on Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' rally, because for me, it was a no-win situation. But then, I changed my mind. I don't care for Glenn Beck very much. Actually I think he's an idiot, a race baiter, and represents everything that's gone wrong with the Fourth Estate. I feel the same way about the talking heads on both sides of the aisle. I just find Beck to be completely objectionable --- the others only sometimes.

Coen's putdown of Glenn Beck drew the ire of Governor's Council candidate Mike Franco. That's Franco on the right with Springfield City Councilor John Lysak.



Franco put out a press release blasting Coen for his remarks:

Bizarre... Notice how liberal neophytes who have isolated themselves for years in their insular universe immediately stoop to name calling and nasty rhetoric. There is no time for concerned Americans to wait for them to understand the truth about the course of our government. We will act now, and we will not relent or shirk our duty.

Wow, pretty strong words on both sides! Hey maybe they ought to have a charity arm-wrestling event or something to settle their beef!

Meanwhile, someone in Northampton appears to be disillusioned with our Governor.



North Valley congressional candidate Michael Engels openly declares himself a "democratic socialist" but at least he has a sense of humor, as evidenced by this anti-Olver graphic on his website.



The other candidate in the three-way race is local tea party hero Bill Gunn.

State Rep. candidate Dan Melick at UMass recently.



Sorry I haven't been posting more, I've been real busy with stuff that will be cool to announce publicly real soon. However, it hasn't been all work, I found time to go floating around...

THE CONGAMOND!




In Southwick, where the dinosaurs roam.



I also went down to Bike Nite in Springfield on Thursday to see what's left of the 80's band Skid Row.



In Springfield they love hard rock, but Northampton likes to explore the bizarre.