not quit autumnal

The weather continues to be hot.

I am starting to take it personally!

Maxwell had his first new acting class today, so Miss F & I headed over to Laurelhurst Park
for some playground action and some duck feeding.
I know, I know, you are not supposed to feed the ducks, but they LIKE IT!

That is the extent of the Saturday activity around here.

Last evening we did have something TOTALLY WEIRD happen to us, though.

I took the kids to a free concert at Music Millennium (Bela Fleck), and on the way there we were listening to a homemade CD of Cat Stevens. We were running a late, so when we pulled up, I just turned off the engine and left the CD in the player, with the cover, on the seat next to me.

Off we go to the concert, which was packed and hot, and not very fun.
Freyja demanded that I hold her the entire time, and some cranky old hippie shoved Maxwell (I KNOW! Can you believe some hag would shove a little boy, to get a better view for herself? SHOCKING!). So after 20 minutes or so we decide to leave.
We get back into the car and take off. The radio was turned OFF, which was weird, so I turned it back on, and Lucinda Williams comes on. For a minute I thought that perhaps, my brother burned that song onto the end of the CD when he made me the Cat Stevens, but then I ejected it, and saw that it was a commercial CD, not the homemade one that we had left in the player.
WEIRD.
So naturally I pull over because I suspect that the car was broken into.

Nothing was taken EXCEPT the homemade CD!
When I got home Mark searched the entire car and it was no place to be found.
The whole thing was just weird as hell, and I really don't cope with weird very well, but in addition to the missing CD, we started out morning on Friday with a flat tire, that turned out to have been slashed, all the way through. So all and all it was a day of weirdness for my car, and for me, and I hope that nothing else like that will happen for a long time. The blog keeps eating this post, so excuse the lack of flair in the writing, I am just trying to get it published before it evaporates again!

starf*#kerpower

Mark e-mailed me these photos from last year's Comiccon, and since I never get to hang out with famous people myself, I thought I would cash in on his "work".

Why does my 42 year old husband look like a 12 year old you ask?

I have no idea, it isn't from clean living and getting good sleep, that is for certain.
In this case, the people in the foreground are standing up on a step and he is in the background...

Neil Patrick Harris, just happened to be hanging out.
Mark actually had some kind of project to work on with Michael Chabon, and told him

"my wife is a big fan".

It was thrilling to get this little greeting, from what Mark says he is a super nice guy.

Duh!

the pattern for the toadstool doll is from the long thread blog
I totally remembered to give her credit for the first little red ridinghood doll, but spaced it this time. Her toadstool is also nicer than mine, but I will live with my limitations in sewing.

gnome home

I made another little red ridinghood doll today, and two little gnome house toadstools. I wish I were a better photographer. Mark says the gnomehouse is the coolest thing I have ever made.

rambling without a destination

This is a very sweet idea.

My friend Sara turned me on to it, and I have printed out a couple of things, and I will use the green one with mushrooms, a little girl and the rabbit for a birthday invitation, for Miss F's birthday.
Super cute.

I am in one of those mushy sentimental moods today.
No good reason. Finding myself busting out the Chet Baker and crying at cat food ads on television. What did Joni Mitchell say? "I am selfish and I am sad" , that about sums up how I feel today. Note to self, listen to Joni, right after Chet.

My stepfather was nice enough to tape and mail me the first several MADMEN episodes from this current season.
I was so excited, I watched two this afternoon by myself. Boy am I glad my husband is not like those guys, whew! If you haven't watched MADMEN, go rent it right now. It is amazing.

"I love you, my beloved angel, poodle, monkey, princess, stinkpot, baby!"

That is what Freyja told me today at nap time.
Lumping all the pet names together is a nice touch.
She is really the epitome of the "little pictures have big ears" thing.
We need to watch our mouths, around her wayyyy more than we ever did with Maxwell.
Maxwell was always discrete, even as a toddler, possessing a remarkable inner censor.
Not Miss F.
She lives to be shocking.
We are off to the first acrobatics class. I hope it is fun.
Super fun, more fun than ballet, which could hardly be counted as any fun at all.
I am required to leave, and not watch.
I really like it already!

the fruits of our labor

It was in the 90's on Thursday and Friday.
Hideous.
Today it is just hot, not oppressively so, but hotter than I like it to be.

I baked some muffins anyway, even though turning to oven on makes the kitchen almost unbearable.

The muffins are sitting upon a really lovely thrifting find- a Fire king platter with a really groovy mid century design in the center- little dots in various shades of blue. It is ovenproof, which I love. I love Fire king and am always tempted to pay too much for it in vintage shops. This was more my price level, at $2.99.

Our tiny pear tree yielded about 10 perfect, tiny pears, which were so heavy the tree almost snapped in half, and we got one pitiful volunteer sunflower.

We are not much on gardening, that is for sure.

I made lentil soup for lunch, even though it felt too heavy and autumnal for the sunny day.

funny haha, not funny strange

this made me laugh so hard I literally fell off of my chair.

maybe this is why I am so controlling?

I was involved in a discussion about offices, and home work spaces, and as you can clearly see, mine is perhaps the dirtiest and most disorganized on the planet.

This office belongs to Rolf, and he is kind enough to let me share it, and house my ancient computer.

I don't keep any of my things down here (except for a garden gnome that belonged to my grandmother, who is guarding the printer) for obvious reasons, but since I have not a single square inch of personal space any place else, I wont complain- much.

He has two other offices, as various prestigious institutions around town, and aside from the addition of lab equipment, they all pretty much look like this.

For me, right now, this is as good as it gets.

(perhaps you should) buy this record

a collaboration between M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel.

I bought this record for Mark for his birthday, in a feeble attempt at being more current, and while not a single person was fooled into thinking of me as current... Our family is really loving this record a lot.

It is old fashioned lowfi, and delightful.

There are a couple of stupid covers, but for the most part worth the $11 or so to own it.
If you are like me, and you like to sing out loud while mopping the floor or cleaning the cat box, this record is for you! It is singalongriffic!
Plus I have a total crush on Zooey, from her character on Weeds.
So there you go.

Enchanted

On Thursday, we headed south to the Enchanted Forest, a teeny theme park just south of Salem, about an hour away.

The park is set into a hillside, and has been around since 1971.

Things are pretty much the same as they were when I was a child, except for the addition of a few tasteful rides.

I am not a fan of theme parks, but this one is sweet, small and super clean.

I like the woodsy feeling too, and the shade.

The old woman who lived in a shoe, has a nice big slide, but small enough that little kids aren't intimidated.

The haunted house is pretty scary. It was too scary for Freyja, who kept saying

"I need to get out of here!"

It has a sort of dank moldy smell, that adds to the creepy feeling!

We brought along a lunch, which is always a good idea!
Here is my super elegant salad in a baggy!
The yellow jackets were out of control.
Worse than I have ever seen.

Bootiful Princess went on the kiddie Ferris Wheel by herself (the rest of us were too big).
Maxwell and I went on the super scary & exciting log ride, and got really wet!
We (and by we I mean ME) really wanted to go again, but Mark had wandered off and he had the tickets in his pocket, so we only got to go once.

Miss F, eating a parting frozen yogurt and flashing gang signs?

My raindance worked!

TV

We finished season III of Dexter.

It was good enough.

I mean Dexter is no Sopranos, can't touch Six feet under, doesn't hold a candle to the Riches (which was cancelled!!! #$%#$), but I like it.

I like the concept of a vigilante killing bad guys- so sue me, I do, I like it.
I wish he didn't enjoy in that freaky serial killer way, but I still like the idea of it, if only he would include more child molesters.

We also watched two episodes of The united States of Tara, which had such colossal potential to be bad, yet was really very good, that I have to hand it to Diablo Cody, she is pretty freaking brilliant.

We are also watching the staircase, a documentary about Michael Peterson's murder trial. His wife was found dead in a giant pool of blood at the bottom of the staircase, and he says it was an accident, and the DA says murder.
Oh, and he was a bit of a closet case, which he claims his wife knew about, and this whole thing is taking place in the south, which is not what anyone would call gay friendly, in fact the whole DA office are positively giddy when they talk about getting him.
It is pretty interesting so far.
Naturally-and Michael even speaks to this- he is only able to get a semi- fair break, due to the fact that he is rich, so there is that.
The whole class thing in the US justice system.
Yup, pretty interesting.
I think he is innocent, Mark is leaning toward guilt.

I have been reading, but nothing note worthy, really just a bunch of crap.
the only thing I even remember a title for is a country called home.
Which is written in a sort of "literary" highbrow style that I find pretentious and annoying.
It is about Idaho, and farming, and small towns, and loss. Not bad, not my cup of tea.

I also read the king of sting, a memoir about Craig Glazier's life of posing as a cop and robbing big time drug dealers. Kind of interesting, although Craig is really phony and self absorbed and silly. I find criminals interesting, though, so I put up with what is clearly 90% bullshit.

What else?

Oh, a novel about a Catholic sect (?) group (?) region(?) in India, called Konkans.

(god, am I ignorant or what? geez. I was just chatting today with a fellow in Morocco, about symbolism in film and it dawned on me how little I know about so many things! In the case of the fellow in Morocco (isn't the internet awesome?), we were talking about universal themes, when it became clear the themes were not really universal to folks who do not come from a Judeo-Christian culture... anyway. I know very little about this region in India. That was my point. I knew there was one in there someplace.)
The novel was good, but Mark accidentally returned it to the library, so now I can't recall the title, but thanks to the google gods, I was able to find it Tony D'Souza The konkans, interesting and worth rooting around the library for.

I may need this

I am obsessing about this fabric.

The poodle jumping through the hoop? nuff said.

The problem is that Bootiful Princess has such different taste than me.

She actively shuns that cool skirt I made out of the fabric with the pear print.

All she ever wants to wear is a threadbare, hand me down denim hotpantish- skort thing from the neighbor.

I long for a pinafore with vintage circus print, and my daughter wants go go boots and purple fur trimmed mini skirts.

She also forbids hair fixing.

We are vastly different, she and I.

My mother recently gave her (WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?) a Norse goddess Mme Alexander doll, and I nearly had a heart attack when she wanted to TAKE IT OUT OF THE BOX!

"Are you crazy? you can't touch that doll!! And don't even THINK about crimping the corner of the box, for GOD SAKES!"

Freyja simply doesn't get the concept of collectibles.

She was happy enough with a Barbie knock off, and you will be happy to know that Ingeborg is safely stashed out of harms way, in my closet!