Almost Time

I have to wonder how farmers do it; the waiting until the fruit is really ripe and not picking it too soon.
But also not wating too long and having it rot on the vine/tree.
I am one of the former I think, rather than the latter. I've been hovering over the blackberry vines in the back yard and have already eaten three (okay five) that are not quite ripe yet, because I'm too anxious. They were darker than these:There are a lot (relatively speaking) this year:I'm so excited. And there's more to come. The bees are out and loving the blossoms:But I don't know if they will all be ripe at approximately the same time, so I might end up eating them by twos and threes, as they turn black.

This is me with no patience in the garden either.

I Double Dare You

I dare you...no.
I double dog dare you to find something more precious than this:Sleeping.
Baby.
Hummingbirds.
Seriously.
On a wavy, low hanging branch in Aunt Richie's back yard.
For reals.

This is me and sometimes the day does not suck.

Sherlock

What is with British television? And how do three episodes make a season in any sense of the word?
Tarzan, ATL and I are watching the Masterpiece Mystery series Sherlock and it is pretty dang good. The actor playing Sherlock - pretty important part obvi - is amazingly good. I would not saddle my child with a name like Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch but he does a remarkable job with the part. His script must be four times the size of anyone else's. And I like his hair much better in the show than in real life. The writing is excellent and the updating of the scenes to include television and cell phones (mobiles, sorry) but not lose the integrity of the original stories is impressive.
Pretty dang good, but such a very small number of episodes.
Yes, each episode is an hour and a half long but even then, it's not an average viewing season.

This is me; I need more Sherlock!

Spectacular

I am not famous or cool enough to get endorsements so when I mention a product on this page, know that I had to buy it for myself and it is REALLY good.
Today's featured substance: Krazy Glue.
It seems to be a different sort of Krazy Glue from my childhood. Maybe I'm just not remembering it correctly but the stuff I used today came out of the tube like water and yet glued together the broken pieces of a really heavy object in less than 5 minutes.
So amazing. It's like invisible duct tape; sticking things that should be stuck together but aren't.

This is me gluing stuff.

If, By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

This is me and all those who wish to run for office should study this.

Swinging Good Time

Same Saturday, after we went to the Renaissance Fair...e, we took some of the kids from Tarzan's high school out to a ballroom dance club. They were really excited about learning to swing dance for their high school musical and Tarzan had a really good time teaching them, so this was a huge thing for them all.What amazed me was the difference between these kids who wanted to learn; their attitude - yes, they were teenagers, but they came and they participated, they danced, they didn't say no, no matter who asked, they tried - and some others that didn't. We taught the church kids the same dance style and we had to drag them kicking and screaming the whole way and they ran as soon as they could.I'll take the ones who want to learn every time:
This is me, goin' dancing.

Renaissance Faire

On Saturday last, Tarzan and I went to the local Renaissance Fair...e. He's been a few times before - a fact I did not know, nor predict - but I have never been so we took an excursion:
It was interesting to say the least.We watched the falconry show, which was really fascinating and amusing. The guy had two owls: A hawk:And a vulture:Which, you might not suspect, was really funny. I don't know if it was part of the routine or just a vulture with a mind of it's own. Still, it was amusing watching it try and route out hidden turkey legs from the bleachers. I ate mine after the show was over:We saw the joust:



Hilarious because it's grown men with bigger toys and real horses acting like little boys in the back yard. I wonder if this is something I would have done if I had more stage prescence and less desire to be clothed...The costumes were perhaps the most diverse I have ever seen anywhere, and that includes Halloween. From full on Renaissance stuff:Through I don't even know what:Some of them were really elaborate, some were made up out of people's closets and some were just weird. Still, it was very interesting and with more time to plan, and longer to stay, I'd go again.

This is me and we went to the Fair...e.

Morning

I saw this on my way up the hill to Aunt Richie's house today:
Small and simple things.

This is me, pleased.

NPR

Tarzan has made a few comments over the years about my lack of knowledge regarding current events. I can't say that he's wrong entirely, but the news makes me so mad most of the time, and if it's really good stuff it shows up on The Daily Show. But the last time he borrowed my car he left the station on NPR; it was a decent piece so I left it and then he and I chatted about it at dinner that night and that snowballed so now I listen to NPR all the time. I am more informed for sure and find I can talk to other people about current events and sound quasi-intelligent. It hasn't made me any less mad though.
Two discussions in the last few days in particular make me want to bite someone.

• The first bit I heard on the way home one day was about how some Silicon Valley employees are wearing hoodies in a show of solidarity after the whole debacle in the news about the kid who got shot by the Neighborhood Watch guy. It's terrible that the kid is dead and that the guy has to live with a death of a teenager but I don't know that it was racially motivated. If I see a person in a hoodie, shading the face, in the dark, slouching down the street, I'm gonna be more inclined to think it's a thug - no matter the color of their skin - than if I see a kid on the sidewalk, in the daylight, with a designer brand, pressed hoodie on, no matter the color of their skin. Situation and circumstance plays a part in these incidents as well. Location, location, location.


• The second piece has to do with a cover of Time magazine about attached parenting. Despite the hideous picture - which I didn't see until just now - my first concern after listening to the guest describe what the group is all about was "just how is that different from what my parents did?" If, as they spokesperson kept saying, their emphasis is on connection between parent and child, talking to the kid, touching, cuddling, eating with and spending time with young ones, I still don't know how that is different from what my own mother and father did. Why do we need a whole new label and 'movement' about it? And the NPR host kept trying to get the guest to specify how her group was different than 'regular' parenting and she couldn't, or wouldn't. The only differences I see are the extreme cases; the nursing until the child goes to kindergarten, or the one caller who still co-sleeps with her son and he's 9. It broke up her marriage because the husband didn't want to share his wife with his son. Other than the weird stuff, it sounds like Parenting 101. Why the big to-do about it?

This is me, better informed but not happy about it.

I'd Be More Excited To Vote

It's a telling sign of the state of affairs when George Clooney is mentioned more times than President Obama in the ads for the political fundraiser that's going on tonight. It's at Geroge's house, true, but it's Obama's campaign they're meeting to finance.

This is me and I'd vote for George. Prettiest president EVER.

Stomachs Are Weird

The stomach flu stinks.
At least that's what I hope this is - and isn't THAT a weird statement to make - because otherwise I can't make pizza ever, ever again.


This is me trying not to vomit.

Invested

I admit to a bit of an obsession with Law & Order. I used to watch all the iterations but it became too much for the DVR so I had to cut. Jerry Orbach passed away, so the original could go and then Vincent d'Onofrio reduced his air time on Criminal Intent and SVU was my favorite anyway, mostly because of Mariska Hargitay and, until recently, Christopher Maloni. (Who's movie career is so demanding that he can give up the bread and butter that is Law & Order?)
All of this is the wind-up to tell you I think it stinks that Detective Benson and David Haden had to break up after only four episodes. I get that he's contracted for only four appearances - so far - but does the romance have to be that speedy? In one episode he's promising to not go anywhere and the next they're over because he's head of the committee to oversee her case files. And after all the promos saying Harry Connick Jr. was coming it was barely a blip in the 34 episodes I had on the DVR. (They're all gone now, I watched a lot waiting for him to show up.)
So much for TV promises.

This is me, a little disappointed.

Weird Dream #40

I dreamed I was on a basketball team and though I couldn't dribble, or pass, or really anything at all, I could make a basket from anywhere on the floor. Every time, no problem. Because of this I was always allowed to play but the opposing team kept trying to sabotage the ball, filling it with rocks and this really heavy white powder so I couldn't throw it. It didn't work because I would feel the difference and tell the referee and they would lose a point.
Then the game dissolved into a dinner of sorts, but there weren't any tables or chairs and I was still wearing my basketball uniform and the oldest son (he's 19) of one of the families from church was there and he proceeded to make a public apology about something, asking us all to forgive him and promising to try harder (at what I do not know) then as we were proceeding into dinner (that's right, it was in another room) he slung his arm around my neck and proceeded to kiss my forehead, like a father would, except he did it a couple of times on the way to dinner.

This is me; would they even take my brain if I donated it to science?