she's just saying...

Friendless in Seattle

If it's September, it must mean... eye surgery! (Isn't that what it means to you?) Yes, I'm going back for more because it was so much fun last year.

Actually, this time it's the other eye, it's a less-invasive surgery, and should be much simpler. The downside is that Dr. Cute doesn't do this procedure and the nearest surgeon is in Seattle. Ordinarily I love going to Seattle, but this time it probably won't be as much fun. For one thing, I'll be in Bellevue vs. downtown, and for another, I'll be having surgery.

It shouldn't be that unpleasant though. I'll be staying in a nice generic hotel in a nice generic city, near a large mall. The only snag is that the surgery center insists that after the procedure I can only leave in the care of a responsible adult. A cab driver doesn't count.

My friend Mark and I have been through many operations, moves, crises and weekend trips together and he'd be my obvious choice, but for two things that he pointed out; he can't leave LA in September due to work and he doesn't qualify as a responsible adult. It's also about as far away as you can get from New England where my sisters live.

I kind of hate to ask a friend to come up with me, as I really only need the help for an hour and other than that it would be a long boring trip. One option a friend suggested is to hire a personal assistant-type who drives seniors around to their appointments and errands. It may actually be the way to go, pathetic as it might seem. I could go the social networking route and post a request on Facebook or Craig's List, but that seems kind of desperate.

Another friend has chimed in that if I'm going to actually hire someone I might as well enjoy it, so go for a Chippendales dancer or the like. Probably not. Wouldn't be prudent. But any other ideas are welcome...

Problem solved.

High-brow

Despite my TIVOs and HD and all, I'm not a frequent TV viewer. If I'm lucky, I'll catch three shows a week, other than keeping half an eye on Sponge Bob while Henry's watching (and baseball of course). But I'm very excited about the premier of "The Good Wife" this fall.

I'm a huge fan. It's a terrifically smart, nuanced, gorgeous show with a great story arc. But mainly I watch it for Julianna Margulies' eyebrows. I can't take my eyes off them - they steal every scene. You might even say I'm obsessed.

If you've been watching TV or looking at fashion mags in the last year, you've probably noticed something going on with eyebrows. They're longer, darker and much more defined. What, you don't notice eyebrows? What's wrong with you?

At one point in the depth (heighth?) of my obsession, I bought an eyebrow pencil at the MAC counter. (This involved buying the sharpener that went with it, as the saleswoman informed me that since the pencil is triangular it needs a specially-shaped sharpener. I figured she sold a lot of them that way so didn't point out that the sharpening hole is actually still circular.)

Anyway, I went home and had a fascinating time "feathering in" as she put it, and damned if I didn't look more like a sharp junior partner of a fancy Chicago law firm. Since my brows then put my hair and wardrobe to shame, I put the pencil away until I was worthy of it.

However, I read recently in the New York Times: "...looking ahead to fall 2010, the brow is bolder than ever, whether aggressive or playful." So this fall I'm definitely going the bold, playful route. And maybe even occasionally aggressive.

I'm very serious. And so are my eyebrows.

Today's pop quiz

Setting: 7:30 am on a busy Friday morning. Two boys looking at you expectantly, waiting for you to solve their argument.

Question:  A Rubik's cube has more combinations than the number of molecules on Earth. True or false?

Follow-up question:  How do you know?

Your answer?

⁼

 

Top Ten Tues: back to school countdown

Lockers!

Henry's starting middle school in two weeks, and he and his classmates are very excited. Lockers are a big part of it for some reason. The challenge facing both of us is that middle school starts at 7:45 am, about the time he was getting up for the last six years. It's going to be a major shock to both our systems and I'm trying to ease us into it over the next two weeks.

While he's enjoying his last carefree summer days, I've got to get in gear and make the parental stuff happen. So, top ten things I need to do to get ready for middle school.

1. Start getting up earlier
2. Get soccer shoes (size 10 mens - anyone have any?)
3. Buy glue sticks: new year, new glue sticks
4. Plan a few more s'mores roasts
5. Start going to bed earlier
6. Find H's desk under last year's papers and folders and crap mementos
7. Drag him to the dentist, the doctor and the barber
8. Restart his computer from scratch and lock out Cartoon Network
9. Replace his long pants that mysteriously shrunk over the summer
10. Have The Talk we've both been avoiding.

What's on your list for the last two weeks of summer?

In-de-pen-dance (August rerun)

Since little ever changes around here, I'm taking an August blogcation and reposting a few of last year's posts. If something new happens, I promise I'll blog about it, but until then or Labor Day, whichever comes first, I'm repeating a few. (I'm counting on some new readers and short attention spans.)

I should also say that the boys are a bit more responsible this year - it's a miracle, but it does happen.

Giant step yesterday on the 10-year-old front. Henry and his best friend Gavin* biked home from camp by themselves. To those of you without kids: this is a big thing.

Camp gets out at 11:30 am 3 pm(as usual ignoring working parents' schedules), at which time I'm down at the Museum and don't feel like driving 10 miles back to town to ferry them a half mile home. So after I installed and loaded the new bike carrier, we rehearsed using the bike lock (with eyerolls and sighs) and I left them to find their own way home. They had their helmets, the lock, water bottles, jackets and $20 to get them through a week of junk food at 7-11. Then, of course, they got to stay home without adult supervision til I returned at 5:30.

The first time they stayed alone during the day the house was covered in spilled cereal, sticky ice cream dishes, various unmatched shoes and socks, squirt guns, video game boxes and random plastic legos that hurt like a bitch when you step on them. With the threat of a babysitter looming, they've been working on clean-up and are actually starting to catch on.

I wrestle with bad-mommy guilt over leaving them alone, never mind letting them roam the westside on their bikes. Being in a smaller, safe, family-friendly town helps. But still. I've watched too many "Law and Order" episodes to feel really comfortable. Maybe it's the natural progression toward independence or maybe they'll soon be smoking cigarettes behind the 7-11 (or maybe both). There's no manual for single moms. All we can do is make lists, check in frequently and trust in the goodness of the universe.

*Gavin is staying with us for a few weeks.(still true in 2010)

I was feeling pretty independent myself, having researched, procured, assembled and mounted the bike carrier on the car. Another episode in the endless series of "Girls Can Do It!"

what's on the needles late summer

I was doing so well. Practicing knitting monogamy. Focusing solely on the Summer Solstice cardigan. Well, there was that little fling with the market bag, but I needed a travel project over the fourth. And I did return to Solstice when it was over.

Unfortunately, it's now become clear that the honeymoon is over. I've hit the really boring part: straight stockinette stitch for long rows forever. But I still have to keep track of the rows because every 4, 8, or 12 I have to increase or decrease a few times. This means it's boring knitting, but not mindless knitting. A crucial difference. Mindless knitting means totally zoning out, not paying any attention, finding a zen state where you just form the stitches, over and over. This is not that. I have to count every row, which just emphasizes the slowness of my knitting progress. So the sweater has become one of those works-in-progress that I'll pick up now and then, rather than one I'm enamored of.

So the itch to cast on was not to be denied. I have an excuse - Doctor Sister is having a big birthday in September, and it calls for a lovingly-hand-knitted gift. Plus I'm broke, and one thing I have is yarn. So I had to start a mystery project that can't be discussed here until it's done and wrapped and mailed and received on time by September 17. Or as soon thereafter as is possible. (OK, now she knows kind of what she's getting. But the anticipation of what it actually is should be thrilling.)

Then there's the next project. Due to the shopping frenzy and subsequent swapping action from the Goth Socks sale, I'm now the proud owner of some new yarn. Sadly for my stash, the newest skeins are always the most attractive. So I'm back to endless perusal of patterns on Ravelry, planning and scheming, pulling out needles, swatching samples and itching for the day when I cast on again.

Not Dr. Sister's yarn.

Urban renewal

I flew up to Seattle and back yesterday. For an eye doctor appointment -- gone are the days when I would fly a one-day r/t for business. It was fun to be back on city sidewalks.

There's nothing like a city for energy and buzz. Bend, on the other hand, does not have buzz. It has mellow. Pleasant, but definitely laid-back, even if you're working just as hard. I used to be hooked on that buzz, but I don't know if I could handle it now on a daily basis. But it sure is good to experience it now and then, and there's a lot about cities I miss.

You can now take a sparkly bright new train from the airport right to downtown for $5 round-trip. I put on my city commuter face and it was very easy. Sometimes cities do things right for a change. After my 4-hour appointment (seriously!) I had time to experience the city and so of course headed for the nearest yarn store for an absolutely necessary purchase.

This is what I love about cities - here are the other stores on that block:

• Alchemy, a bookstore with "magical" books and supplies. It looked intriguing but I didn't explore.
• The Honey Hole, a neighborhood cafe. Ditto the above.
• Babeland, a sex toys shop. Um, ditto?
• Stitches, the yarn store, my destination.

That's as far as I could go, as I had to stumble my way back to the airport. Stumble because (irony alert!) I broke a contact lens at the eye doctor's. My eyes had been dilated and because I didn't bring my prescription sunglasses I had to wear one contact under my regular sunglasses. Blurry and half-blind, I wasn't in the mood for more shopping or sightseeing. I needed to sit down near the flight gate, have a beer and peer at a magazine.

All in all, another novel day. For those who are wondering, this new eye doctor does recommend the still-somewhat-experimental surgery for my right eye. For those who are now really wondering, I have glaucoma and underwent a long and annoying surgery experience on my left eye that no one wants to repeat. Though the drugs were good while they lasted. Until they weren't.

Gazzz-pacho!

(All vegetables from Paradise Farm Stand, of course)

Due to popular demand:

Quick Gazpacho

As usual, I take the easy way out - using the food processor (or a blender), not peeling anything. Make sure not to over-process. It shouldn't be veggie mush.

Process the following briefly and empty into a large bowl:

4-5 tomatoes - don't peel or seed
2 cucumbers, no need to peel
1 small sweet onion (can process this and garlic more thoroughly)
2-3 garlic cloves
2-4 sweet peppers (yes, even I use some - yellow/red/orange only, but you can use green)
small bunch of Italian parsley

Add quart of tomato juice.

Process the following and add:

1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
salt/pepper
dashes of hot pepper sauce to taste

That's it! Seriously. Serve with some chopped avocado and croutons as you wish. I actually freeze some and thaw it on a winter day when I'm dreaming of summer...

PS: a lot of recipes add diced bread to the processed veggies to add body. I don't see the need...

Marketing genius a la Goth

This is a post about yarn, but don't turn away! It's really about marketing, and a case study in creating a frenzied demand for a commodity product.

In the yarn world, there's an overwhelming movement toward hand-dyed and handspun yarn produced primarily by a lot of 20 and 30 somethings who (seriously) are very counter-culture. It's the whole etsy, handmade, back to nature neo-hippie thing.

So, the marketing genius part. There's a woman in Washington named Stephanie who dyes her own yarn for sale and has a cult following. She's very goth, and her yarn lines are goth-inspired. There's a lot of black plus color striping yarn designed primarily for striped socks, often worn with clunky round-toed shoes.

© RedScathach

(At this point, if you're not a knitter, you probably think I'm making this up. I'm not.)

She has lovely and weird color mixes and soft yarns, but frankly, there are a lot of other yarn designers out there who have similar product. (Don't jump on me, gothsocks people!) But she sells out every run, at a price of $28 per skein. That's one hank of yarn, enough for two socks. And people are lined up begging for any yarn they can get, at prices up to $40.

So she ran a mystery yarn sale last month via etsy. You were limited to two skeins for $25 each, they were seconds, and you had no say in what type or color of yarn you got. The yarn was available for sale at 10 am that day, and so many people logged in to etsy that it couldn't handle the traffic. And she sold out in minutes.

Of course, since I'm writing about it, you can assume I was part of the frenzy. I got my two skeins, one a beautiful, subtle mix of grays and one a pretty garish striping yarn of black, brown, orange and red, and I have a list of people wanting to buy them from me. These are yarns I would not have looked at in a yarn store, but, trend-wagon person that I am, I had to have them. I'm not what you'd call goth, and I don't even like stripey yarn!

This is cool stuff. Stephanie does what she does for love. She makes beautiful yarn, with a clear positioning and attitude, and has an adoring fan base because of it. All power to her. And boy, she knows how to drive demand:  keep the product exclusive, make it an event, let your evangelists spread the word.

(Here's her booth at a yarn show - photo by her)

Top Ten Tuesday: summer sounds edition

Favorite Sounds of Summer

1. Hummingbirds cheeping around my head while I sit on the patio
2. The sprinklers going on at night
3. Henry and his gang charging around on their bikes, yelling through the neighborhood
4. My waterfall trickling down the rock (i.e. working)
5. Deschutes Cascade Ale being poured into a glass
6. The ballgame, especially if my team is winning
7. A distant lawnmower on a Sunday afternoon (not too close to annoy)
8. Kids splashing and yelling at the pool while a lifeguard whistles
9. Brined, butterflied, barbequed chicken sizzling on the grill (recipe upon request)
10. The ice cream truck, playing "It's a Small World" -- well, maybe not so much.

OK, your turn to play: add some more!

The conservation of bustedness

Part of my August blog-cation: rerun from August 2008 (as are the first 3 comments...)

My big bro Steve has always espoused the theory of the "conservation of bustedness." In essence, it means that if you successfully fix something, something else must break. I always thought it was one of his semi-serious paranoid delusions, but allow me to pour myself a BIG glass of wine and tell you about my day.

I won't talk about Mary-who-stays-with-me-weekends's 55-pound puppy who frolicked in my carefully landscaped pond, tried to pick up the kitten with her "soft" mouth, ripped up Flash's special frisbee and chased both my cats, all before noon. No, this is about the smoke alarms.

I have seven interconnected smoke alarms in my four-bedroom home. That means when one goes off, the others all chime in helpfully. Today one of them went off (false alarm) but of course we couldn't tell which. So Mary and I ran around with our fingers in our ears changing the old batteries, and thought that was the end of it. Of course, fixing them meant something else had to go bust (according to the theory), so when cleaning up the mud the ladder left behind, I realized my fancy-schmancy vacuum cleaner could barely suck through a straw. Then a smoke alarm went off again (with all new batteries!) so we went running around trying to pinpoint the offender again.

Meanwhile, Flash (just a tad neurotic) panicked over the alarms, bolted out of the house and down the street, the labrador puppy gleefully following. We had to drive around the neighborhood for some time til we located them, brought them home and tried to figure out the smoke alarms again. Of course we couldn't pull the car all the way into the garage because Henry's bike was in the way (did I mention I ran over his bike Friday and had to get it fixed for $99?). Henry came back from looking for Flash and pushed the garage door closer which began to bang rhythmically on the roof of my car, having run off its rails and gone berserk, finally crumpling in defeat.

So now I need new smoke alarms, a new garage door and a vacuum repaired. How was your Sunday?

hotel sinks - an occasional series

Second sink shot for a Friday frylet (that makes it a series, right?) First was the trendy one in Portland.

This one is from that moderne hotel in Tacoma that offered the spiritual room service menu. This hotel, the Murano, specializes in glass, as in glass art and decor. (It's a tie-in with the Tacoma Museum of Glass - arty.) This is a lovely sink that shares the same problem as the Nines sink of the previous post, which is that it's too chic to mess up. I kept wiping up after myself for fear I'd leave water stains. Kinda defeats the point, but that's what you gotta do for art, I guess. Anyway, happy Friday.

Ooh, glassy!

 

Top Ten Tues: summer rerun edition

OK, so now it's August. I've blogged about my feelings about August previously, but this year it feels a little different. Summer came so late to Central Oregon that August is feeling like July. The town is praying that summer will stick around later than usual, which means no snow til November, please.

I was reading old posts and realized something profound: the reason this blog has gotten boring (in my opinion) is that life is pretty boring right now. No agonizing break-ups, no major surgery, no work drama, nothin' but good times. No complaints, but no inspiration. So I'm taking a blogger's perogative and rerunning some previous stuff.

So, what we eat in the summer. Recipes upon request. This list does not include the standard chicken/fish/shrimp on the grill that we have regularly. This is when I'm cool enough to cook and have the urge.

1. ratatouille with couscous
2. fish tacos
3. french potato salad
4. linguine alla vongole (clams to you)
5. greek salad - hold the bell peppers
6. gazpacho with shrimp: ditto
7. killer shrimp (stolen from the LA diner of the same name)
8. salad nicoise
9. the humble fresh tomato parsley parmesan omelet
10. grilled eggplant with soy sauce

I just realized that I've been making these same dishes for years. We don't eat beef, pork or lamb so it can be a challenge to come up with new menus. What do you cook when it's hot?

 

 

The War of the Hoses

If they can land a man on the moon, can't they invent a non-leaking hose?  Or, to be more timely: if they can stop an underwater well from gushing oil, why can't they stop hose nozzles from dripping?

I hate dealing with hoses. I'm always buying random parts, fittings, couplings, hose ends, plumber's tape, connectors, and nozzles. They always leak. And kink, and drip. A few years ago I was taken in by the coiled hose concept; I can't remember why. They're particularly annoying, tangling up like a telephone cord, only heavy and wet.

Here's this year's collection of hoses and parts. Notice how wet it all is. Has anyone found a leakless hose/nozzle?

Hosed.