I like letters

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What's In My Garden?!?

A couple of Cicada Killers have built burrows in our yard, and M. and I have been watching them and marvelling at them. At first we noticed these rather large holes next to the walkway in the back - we thought they were from a snake or something. The hole is large, like the size of a silver dollar, and there's a big chute and dirt piled up all around. (I didn't take these pictures, but that's what ours look like). They're really big and scary looking, but supposedly harmless - except to cicadas! I was going to take a picture of one of the nests today, but I noticed the hole was partly covered up, but, after a little research, I figured out what had happened. The female paralyses a cicada and drags it down into the nest. (We've been telling really dumb jokes about being stung and dragged into the nest ourselves.) Then she lays an egg on it, then she leaves and covers up the hole (that's what I saw), then I guess she goes off and dies. Then, the egg hatches, the larva Cicada Killer wakes up and eats the cicada (ALIVE!) then it spins a cocoon, chills out for the winter and we go through the whole thing next summer.

Crazy, huh? And GROSS! Right?!? But, we're living and letting live, you know? Most of the stuff we've read says not to try to get rid of them, because they help balance the cicada pop. I feel kinda bad for them because we never had the ballyhooed 17 Year Cicadas.

What's in My Garden?

Just as I suspected, our Cup Plant has grown to over 10 feet tall and is now reaching out to kill us all. Beware!

I believe this is Goldenrod, right?

Now it's time to play: Weed or Plant?Anybody know what these two are?


Check it out: the newest addition to our garden is a pool the perfect size for a raft and one extremely lazy person (moi!). I love nothing better than laying on a raft all day. Although I haven't been able to use it much due to a nasty ear infection, the paw prints on the edge lead me to believe that other creatures are enjoying it.

In case you're interested, I discuss the differences in the American and British versions of the Harry Potter books on my book blog.

There was a big storm yesterday afternoon and our power went out! It was out for about 24 hours. I had a hard time trying to decide whether I wanted to pretend to be a Pioneer Woman or a Jane Austin-Type. I settled on "old-timey woman" and got a big thrill out of walking around with candles. Suffering from severe internet withdraw, I wrote a letter to my cousin and attempted to read. Turns out: candles don't really provide that much light. Here's my living room...

DIY Jewelry Frame

I've been ruminating on the problem of what to do with my french hook earrings for a long time. Recently I envisioned the solution, and today: Execution! I love it! First, I bought a frame for just a couple of bucks at a thrift store:
The design was cool, but the color was ugly. I removed the glass and the backing, and spray painted it. Oh, silver spray paint, what would I do without you?
Then I hot-glued a screen (like the kind from a window) to the back of the frame. If it had been wood, I probably would have staple-gunned it. Then I trimmed the extra screen off with scissors.
I attached hanging wire to the back and added S hooks for necklaces.
Voilà! So easy!

Like a market in Indiana!

The Daily Show actually sent one of their correspondents (Rob Riggle) to Iraq! Riggle is a major in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, and served in Liberia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Last night he did an awesome bit taking off from douchebag Indiana congressman Mike Pence (R) who said Iraq is "like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime." So Hoosier soldiers were on the Daily Show in abundance, explaining just how like a normal outdoor market in Indiana Iraq is NOT. And, there was a quick clip of Indiana icon, Bobby Night (threatening one of his players, natch). Ah, Bobby, you know we love ya! Check out the Daily Show this week! Here's the clip if you missed it:



Hoosier deaths in Iraq

Total Army Recruits by state (as of 2004)

The War as We Saw It, a brave op ed piece in the NYT by 7 soldiers on the ground (one of whom was shot in the head before the piece went to press). They wrote:

Given the situation, it is important not to assess security from an American-centered perspective. The ability of, say, American observers to safely walk down the streets of formerly violent towns is not a resounding indicator of security. What matters is the experience of the local citizenry and the future of our counterinsurgency. When we take this view, we see that a vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side.

But Mom! I don't want to be on the internet!

We had a lovely visit from friends this weekend, and they brought along Guitar Hero, which I have been making fun of ever since our Simpsons-like Game-store Guy told me it was "uh, like, totally awesome." God help us if we didn't end up at the game store this morning, purchasing our own non-guitar.

This new breed of Playstation Games (DDR and whatnot) remind me of the old-school Nintendo pad, which my brother used to kill. He used to play this racing game and he figured out how to move his feet really fast, and it was hilarious. His little screen runner ran so fast it looked like his legs were going to fly off. We used to just watch and laugh and laugh. Times haven't changed that much...

Here's another kid playing his heart out (someone get this kid a real guitar!)


And, while I'm posting video of underage children, I might as well put up this one of babies eating lemons...

BTW, check out my friend Sonya's blog of her whirl-wind cross-country trip for pics of people reading in Chicago as well as some familiar faces!

The Bourne Ultimatum

You know how I'm a misanthropist? Here's merely one of the reasons why - we went to see The Bourne Ultimatum over the weekend and at 1:30 in the afternoon, it was ridiculously humid outside and the theatre was packed. So, rather than sit in the third row, I asked these people if they would scootch down a seat and as a result put three spread-out seats together for us. And they looked at me, and just sat there. So, I asked again. Politely, I'm telling you. Blank stares. Then I asked less politely, and they grudgingly moved over. One effing seat I asked them to move and it was like a row full of people were being asked to sacrifice their first born! What has happened to people? Since when is it NOT common courtesy to slide over one goddamn seat when politely asked to do so in a crowded movie theatre?!? Oooh, ooh, and this is the best, when we went to sit down, this woman hissed at me, "Well! I think you're being kind of nervy!" NERVY! NERVY? I'll SHOW you NERVY!

Anyway, we shall not let that bother us (much). We shall focus on the Bourne Whatever, which is really good! I loved the first in the series because Matt Damon is all "Oh my god, I'm an incredible fighter! I can scale buildings! I speak Russian! Just go with it!" Even though some of that novelty has worn off by this third movie - Bourne still does everything instinctively, and it makes for a damn exciting spy movie. This movie, which overlaps with the end of the 2nd movie, has the CIA continuing their search for Bourne, who peskily insists on finding out why the government changed his identity and turned him into a killing machine. (Ick, it appears to involve "waterboarding". Ah, the US government, it really makes you want to move to French-speaking Canada.) So, right from the beginning, Bourne's trying to figure out what's going on, while the CIA attempts to track his every movement from an office on computers (I KNEW they did that!) Aside from enjoying a fun movie, you'll learn all kind of tips about how to outrun the CIA if they're after you. Never forget, they're a bunch of buffoons, but, you've totally got to get a disposable cell phone (Veronica Mars uses those too!) because they track all the calls (btw, if you're not mad as hell about the eavesdropping amendment, or, soi-disant Protect America Act - HA! - that was added to the FISA Act over the weekend, you should be. Here's a list of the Dems who allowed it to go through. Thanks, Democratic Congress! You're really taking back the country! Effing jackasses...*) Also, an "asset" is the person they've sent to kill you, so watch out! (A certain husband has indicated that he would henceforth like be known as "the asset".)

Well, it's a great movie, and I think really captures the suspicious spirit of our times and also provides some good clean, blockbuster fun that's not even ruined by the presence of Julia Stiles. Not bad for a summer movie.

*PS DeBordian Perruque, what does "blue dog" mean?

movies

This morning I watched a bunch of previews (so you don't have to!) Here's what I'm most excited about:

The new Wes Anderson!
The Darjeeling Limited

Lust, Caution, the new Ang Lee, with Tony Leung

A couple of movies that appear to be heavily influenced by Rushmore: Rocket Science and Charlie Bartlett.

Margot At the Wedding, a new Noah Baumbach with Nicole Kidman,

My Best Friend looks good, I love Daniel Auteuil,

and I can't decide how I feel about this King Kong movie with the teaser trailers - could go either way.

And, they've finally released the trailer for the new Coen Bros movie, No Country for Old Men, which looks really depressing, but did well at the festivals. I'm not into the whole Mystic River/A Simple Plan movies that make you want to slit your wrists after you watch them.

What's in My Garden?

Hey! Look what's in my garden!
Our neighbors alerted us to the nest about a week ago - it's deep in the rose bush. This is the papa:
He shouts at us when we're outside, especially when we let Kaya out with us.

Does anyone know what this is?
close up:
I moved a bunch of stuff today - we have this thin area between the fence and the walk in the back yard, which is generally over-run with weeds, but I'm trying to get bee balm and mint and lemon balm going in there. I moved some stuff from the front which I *think* is a plant and not a weed, but, the truth is I really don't know what it is. *shrug*

Birthday Weekend

I had a really awesome birthday weekend! On Friday night, M and I went to our old hood, Andersonville, and saw Waiting for Harry at the Neo-Futurarium. It was great. A bunch of Chicago writers talking about their reaction to Harry Potter in profound, silly, angry, or just peripherally related ways. My favorites were Megan Stielstra, Sharon Greene (who had some funny predictions for the future, but ended on an oddly sad note when she predicted that Hermionie would become first a performance artist divorced from an alcoholic Ron Weasley and then a sort of right-to-die horcrux that took on the souls of dying people) and everyone cracked up over Ian Belknaps's scathing screed against all things Harry Potter and how fans are lowering standards for literature everywhere by accepting mediocrity (or, as he put it, letting JK Rowling crap in our brain pans.) Sounds lame, but it was hilarious, in a Lewis Black kind of way. Then we had dinner at a new restaurant - Anteprimo, which is really, really good. Then we walked around Andersonville and ogled all the HP fans. Practically EVERYONE was wearing a cape. It was so fun.

On Sat. night we had a little party in the back yard. I suppose the only flaw was that we put some mulch down in our garden and had no idea it would make our yard smell like a barn. Well, our friends are so lovely, they didn't even complain that it smelled like shit. (: C&D made the most awesome pinata of all time - airplane bottles of booze, firecrackers, candy and bubbles - what could be more fun? Oh! I know! A late-night bout of karaoke!!!!

It turns out bubbles photograph well in the dark!
Then yesterday on the big day we had a lovely brunch with friends G&G, then I actually talked M into going to the beach with me AND getting in the water. Brrrr! Lake Michigan takes a while to heat up!

I'm still celebrating my Birthday Week and my Birthday Month, so, for now, I'm off to the beach again!

My Amazon.co.uk order is being prepared for dispatch!

You know what that means! At the R_ house, we're full of speculation re: the final HP book, M. and I furiously re-reading and nagging each other when we don't read fast enough. M. suggests re-reading the first chapter of Harry 1 for more insight if it's been awhile. Constant debate re: whether or not Harry's scar is a horcrux and what is a horcrux anyway? And so on.

Have been very pleased by the discussion around the Princess Issue from my previous post. Thanks, everyone, for contributing and sharing your (often hilarious) comments!

Been really bummed out because some personal strife has put a real kink in my Birthday-Week celebrations (and life in general), which were planned to be a slightly ramped up version of the Birthday-Month Celebrations. Until I remembered that my birthday is actually Sunday and I can celebrate my Birthday-Week NEXT week. Whew.

Check it out: I got my hair cut!

Some day my self-esteem will come

This picture sparked a conversation between me and my pal, D., and we agreed it might be fun to talk it out on our respective blogs, so keep your eye on DeBordian Perruque for his take on the issue. My response to this pic is, “It's cute, but...” I've got a problem with this Disney Princesses Craze.

It seems that not a trip to the grocery store passes that I don't see a young girl regally riding in her shopping cart carriage, or throwing a fit in the middle of the aisle, made up in full princess regalia. Now, there's no way of getting around this – it must be said: I am getting old. A couple of monumental events have recently taken place in my brain to alert me to this fact. The first is a growing outrage to the ubiquitous exposed midriffs and short, short skirts of my fellow female clothed persons, and the second occurred about a week ago when I saw a couple of kids playing on a slip-n-slide. A slip-n-slide, you may recall, is that ingenious piece of plastic you spread out on the grass, wet down with a hose and then run and throw your body on, in an attempt to slip and yes, slide, to the other end. “Jesus Christ!” I thought. “Those kids are going to ruin their knees!” And then I knew it. I'm old. So, please keep in mind that when I say BACK IN MY DAY I don't like it any more than you do. But back in my day, we didn't wear costumes to the grocery store. We wore them on Halloween.

I was thinking about this phenomenon of the new work-a-day costumed child and it occurred to me that back in my day, if one had a special outfit for Halloween, it was because one's mother slaved over the sewing machine in her free time to make it. And she wasn't thrilled about you wearing it to school and then traipsing all over the neighborhood in the dark, potentially ruining her hard work. Plus, your little sister would need to wear it next year. These days, you can buy a princess outfit for $14.99 any day of the year. I have to admit, when this merchandising started coming out a few years ago, I thought, “If I had a daughter, I'd dress her in that so fast her head would spin!” But as my friends started procreating and I forayed into the children's sections to buy presents, and noticed the gender divide between “girls” things and “boys” things (I'm talking about the INFANT section) I starting questioning my attraction to these little pink outfits.

The Princess Craze bothers me for a couple of reasons – the first is that it's so consumer-based, and worse, it's Disney consumer-based. What people are literally buying into is a pretty insidious brand of femininity. Cinderella “gentle and soft-spoken” (according to the Disney Princesses website) had a small shoe size and won that ultimate prize: marriage to a prince. Snow White had a “pure, lovable nature”, was put into a deep sleep and kissed awake by a prince. Ditto for Sleeping Beauty. Finally late-20th century princesses like Belle and Ariel get descriptive markers like “headstrong” and even remain conscious throughout most of their movies, but the narrative remains the same. The sweet, trusting, beautiful, beyond thin, young woman suffers the injustices of an evil (generally ugly, fat) so-and-so and then gets saved and marries the handsome prince. Reinforcing the white (with very few exceptions), hetero-normative stereotype is a $3 billion dollar a year business, and presents a fairly ridiculous set of role models for children. In a consumer-based society like ours, do we really need one more piece of crap with a dubious message? (for sale: a pink Disney tv: “Perfect for your little princess' royal television viewing.” )


Perhaps you're wondering why I think thin, gorgeous, nice, trusting, pure, gentle, soft-spoken role models are ridiculous role models? Sure, those are nice qualities, but they're not really useful, and they can be harmful goals for girls. Peggy Orenstein writes in a 2006 article for the New York Times:

There are no studies proving that playing princess directly damages girls’ self-esteem or dampens other aspirations. On the other hand, there is evidence that young women who hold the most conventionally feminine beliefs — who avoid conflict and think they should be perpetually nice and pretty — are more likely to be depressed than others and less likely to use contraception. What’s more, the 23 percent decline in girls’ participation in sports and other vigorous activity between middle and high school has been linked to their sense that athletics is unfeminine. And in a survey released last October by Girls Inc., school-age girls overwhelmingly reported a paralyzing pressure to be “perfect”: not only to get straight A’s and be the student-body president, editor of the newspaper and captain of the swim team but also to be “kind and caring,” “please everyone, be very thin and dress right.”

The Image is so powerful. I grew up playing with Barbies, and I can tell you, daily admiration of something that thin and long-legged can really skew a person's vision of reality. Girls today are faced with a media onslaught that's got to be at least 10 times worse than when I was a kid, and I just find it hard to believe that they're going to have the tools or the maturity to deal with these issues (I know I didn't) And I truly don't understand why parents are perpetuating this craze (I mean, they are, after all, the complicit consumers.)

Regarding the young feminist in question, please don't misunderstand me – I know that a Feminist “looks like” just about anything, and I love playing dress-up as much as anybody (see my post about the Harry Potter opening). I'm just quite concerned about the future. I wish that my little sisters of the world had better role models than I did, but I don't think they do. And, no, I don't like those Bratz dolls either.

Harry Potter Movie!

When to the opening of Harry Potter last night with DeBordian Perruque and Sweetkealoha. We had a good time - the theatre was packed with Harry Potter fans. Even though, objectively, I think the movie kind of sucked, as like, a movie, I really enjoyed it. I just reread the book and I think they did about as well as they could to translate the approx. 900 page story to film. I'm sure it would be unbearable for anyone who is not a fan of the books. But, it's worth going early to enjoy the crowd experience, check out costumes, clap and yell at the screen and admire some of the cool effects and set designs.

We made wands for the occasion and everyone agreed that they're a handy accessory. Not just for casting spells but general pointing needs. You can buy an "official" plastic one, but for less than a buck, you can buy a wooden dowel, whittle down the end, paint or stain it, and make up a story about what's inside (mine: the hair of a Ken doll). I made our t-shirts too, with those iron-on things you can buy at any office store. Just create an image and don't forget to flip it horizontally before you print it out. Here's me and M., showing our school spirit:

And here are two Death Eaters, with the DARK MARK! (Watch out! They'll Cruxio you!)

The Barber of Hogwarts

Arg! I had a little list of errands I wanted to run today, which I was going to end with a swim at the beach, which I've been dying for. I dream about floating in water and relieving pressure on my occasionally aching sacroiliac. So, I pop on my bike, run the errands, go to the beach, and the next thing I know, I'm surrounded by running and screaming children and soccer moms, and a wind and sand storm kind of like the one in The Mummy. So, back on my bike, pedal furiously home through the rain, and, needless to say, no swim.

Yesterday a certain husband asked me if I would cut his hair, and oddly full of confidence, I agreed. I always thought that cutting hair looked insanely easy and I would be a natural pro. M. looks ok because he's very handsome, but his hair IS really, really short now. My dear ol' Dad (as he likes to call himself) was a barber for the army. I think I inherited some of those genes.

We're going to the Harry Potter opening on Wed. - really excited. Working on some costumes. Suggested to M. that he go as Crabbe or Goyle (which didn't go over as I'd hoped). I might go as Hermionie myself.

07/07/07!

I feel compelled to blog today just because it's 07/07/07 - good luck, or whatever! M. and I are having an awesome July 4th weekend - we hung out with friends on the 4th (it's all about the baked beans. Or possibly the potato salad...) and then we went camping in Wisconsin - we went to Peninsula State Park in Door County. Really nice park except the beach smelled like poo. Probably because of all that Cheesehead Sewage. We went on some amazing camping trips in California when we lived out there, and by comparison, camping in the midwest kind of sucks, but I do love Wisconsin. It's like a different country full of foreign-language speakers. Like, we were walking around the campsite trying to find a water fountain, and everyone seemed to be looking at us funny when we asked where it was, until finally someone told us there was a "bubbler" around the bend.

Here we are enjoying the natural splendor:

And this was our favorite pastime - sitting around the campsite reading (for me: Harry Potter book five, in preparation for the movie 07/11/07 - huh, that just doesn't have the ring of 07/07/07... too bad.)

Design on a Dime

Put the finishing touches on the downstairs bath today. I love the color in there. It had this really awful stencil along the top of the wall, and appeared to be painted "primer white".


My mom taught me that if you nail a hole into the paint can, like so, the paint will drain back into the can instead of clogging up the rim. Good tip!

Ick.

So, I sanded down the stencil, taped off the trim, and painted on my "mint tint". Now, instead of thinking, Why would anyone DO THAT?!?!, I think Ahhhh, spa-like.


Pretty, isn't it? Isn't it amazing what one can of paint can do? I love it!

Happy July! K's Birthmonth

Yea! It's my birthmonth! I'm going to celebrate the whole month long. Why not? Guess what? M. and I got Dance Dance Revolution and something called Sing Star, which has lead to a odd little turn of events in which *I* try to convince *M* to play Playstation games with me. They're both SUPER fun!!!

I painted the downstairs bath last Friday and it looks SO good. I'll post some pics soon. Other good news is that my back hardly hurts right now. Just a little bit in the morning. My chiropractor has ominously (gleefully?) warned me that it's very likely I'll be reinjured, but for now, I like to think: I'm CURED!

Ratatouille

I've said it before that it's just no use talking about the incredible graphics created by Pixar - but each successive film just gets better and better. The latest, Ratatouille, takes place in Paris, where those geniuses of animation have a chance to really wow us. It's really almost distracting how beautiful the lighting is, how crisp the detail - but they also manage (with very few exceptions) to back all of that with solid characters and wonderful scripts as well.

Ratatouille is about a rat who has an advanced sense of smell. I have an advanced sense of smell too, and I can tell you, it's a curse. Most things in the world don't smell that good. The same is true for the rat, who is put to work smelling out rat poison in the trash for his colony. Eventually he finds himself in Paris, working in restaurant. I'll leave it for you to discover the rest. But what I found interesting was how this movie defied convention over and over again. I kept anticipating the "Disney" part of the production to lead to a more conventional script, but was continually surprised. It even addresses the little-known phenomenon of synesthesia (where one sense is experienced along with an another - ie, a person might experience the smell of something as a low note or squares as orange). There's a lovely bit at the end (I don't think I'm ruining it for you by mentioning) where (voiced by the inimitable Peter O'Toole) the virtues of trying new things and being open to change is voiced.