target practice

yesterday elle and i plopped a couple lawn cushions down in the backyard and enjoyed a morning snack. i'm just loving this gusty autumn weather.

speaking of love, i am wholly emotionally/psychologically/intellectually invested in this new show fringe (missed it during the bizarre crafting week, though)(and incidentally, for the brits among us, this is not a show about hair styles, although that would be riveting). it's this far-fetched sci-fi thriller, much like "v: the final battle" except with humor and likeable characters and a plot.

i've decided that i need to regularly follow one TV show to tether me to normal american society (and thereby stave off total bibliophilistic geekdom, or so the theory goes). so fringe is all well and good for me, except for the paltry fact that it FREAKS ME OUT.

seriously.

i know i'm practically scrawling a target over my avatar and saying MOCK ME PLEASE, because sure, fringe is ludicrously unrealistic and not even scary. but the thing is, the last time science and i brushed shoulders was back when i was eighteen, and in the meantime i've forgotten enough of it (which is, like, all of it) for fringe's scenarios to seem just believable enough that i stumble away from each episode feeling vaguely disturbed. and then in mid-sleep i bolt upright in bed muttering about The Pattern and Get Walter and Massive Dynamic.

yeah, i think i may have been better off with the books.

somebody watch tonight's episode with me so we can do some group therapy tomorrow. grazie. goodnight.

addendum 10/1
okay, so last night's was just kind of meh. if you want to give the show a fair shot, pop on over to the website where i think you can watch past episodes online. i haven't yet seen the third, but the first two are freakishly good.

possible amnesia

so i survived the craft fair.

all in all, it was a pretty nifty first fair, by which i mean my table looked fetching (ok, the low-budget-last-minute version of fetching, but still), and by which i don't mean i raked in the cash.

the crowd was, hmmmn, more of a not-crowd. plus also it was the anemic version of the not-crowd. but given the general lack of potential customers, i'm quite happy with the sales i did garner.

a heartfelt thank you to all those who commiserated with the dreaded pp syndrome--there are more of us lying low than one would suspect, eh? oh, and to answer the popular question of what i crafted, i made up a bunch of apron skirts, corsage tees, wire wrapped jewelry, altered clipboards, textile brooches, and probably other stuff too but i'm still rather sleep deprived and so my memory's even more shot than normal.

on a similar vein, does anyone else routinely forget how old they are? today someone asked me my age, and i had to stall for time with "i am, let's see, um--my birthday's in december..." while this rapid internal debate went am i 32? or am i 31 but wish i were 32? drat, i think i might be 31. i don't remember having a 32nd birthday, although that doesn't mean anything, does it? it does? fine, just 31 then, but extra points to me for remembering the part about december.

and since we're having this discussion, should i be more concerned with my holey memory or the fact that i not only talk to myself but apparently have full-fledged arguments? actually, i do not want an answer to that. i mostly want someone to comment that this is completely normal for a 31 (possibly 32) year old, and that i oughtn't waste a perfectly lovely sunday afternoon worrying about such things.

i am taking a ten minute breather

so about a month ago i thought it would be JOLLYgoodfun to sign up for a booth at our church's fall bazaar. and it probably would've been, too, if i weren't the kind of person who waits till the last minute and then has to assemble 72 craftish things to sell ALL IN ONE WEEK.

yes. the bazaar (there's a reason this word sounds like bizarre) is on saturday starting promptly at 9am. i am considering asking them to change the venue to a different time zone just to give me a few extra crafting hours. i hear it's nice in alofi this time of year.

of course, you should probably put your sympathy on hold as quite plainly this is all my fault. i am what is known as a procrastinating perfectionist, which is a term you may be unfamiliar with as i just made it up, and also we pp's mostly lie low as the perfectionist in us does not like to be seen in public with the procrastinating side. basically a pp is someone whose modus operandi is to determine the last possible moment we can start a project so that it's possible to complete it not only in time but also with a level of quality that knocks everyone's metaphorical socks off.

sometimes we miscalculate.

which makes the second p in us curl up and die. and then promptly undie, as we only have two days left here and if anything's going to get done it's certainly not happening with that other quack in charge.



but alas, my ten minute drivel-break is over, so i must wrap this up.

in conclusion: let this be a lesson to all you pp's out there. the lesson being to stay far, far away from bazaars as they are evil. and also maybe there is a secondary moral-of-the-story in there about procrastinating less, but you know the joke, right? we'll work on that later.

addendum: melissa just commented that procrastinators are the leaders of tomorrow. love it!

final adieu to summer

farewell:

evening shadows




four square games (including black magic, popcorn, spikes, and bus stops)




bare toes




snaking slides




and icy geysers




until we meet again, lovely summer, fare thee well.

farewell to summer part deux

farewell to warm evenings of scraping rocket ships and flower gardens with fat sticks of sidewalk chalk.















farewell to chalky knees (and thighs and ankles) and summer light that stretches the day so deliciously long.

farewell to summer

as the autumn equinox hovers less than a week away in our hemisphere, i'm taking these few days to bid a photographic farewell to summer.











each day at the ko'olina lagoons, elle clamored for a "swimming pool." we'd fashion a crater in that perfect spot just out of reach of the ocean's ebb and surge, but close enough to the waterline to fill with several inches of sandy salt water.

i'd laugh a bit to myself at the sight: she had the whole of the limpid pacific before her, but was enormously content to splash in her personal puddle. and while i hope that she'll dream big, i also know the considerable wealth of being able to find joy in the niche of world belonging just to you.

farewell, holidays by the sea.

september

it's early afternoon but dusky like evenfall, the sky outside roiling with angry clouds.

tempestuous weather. just about my favorite kind.

moody, gusty wind makes me feel small, but in a good way. a way that impels me to gather my children to me, to nest in layers of quilts, and to breathe in the decadent vapor steaming from cups of hot chocolate.

self-portrait challenge: contrast.2

now :: then



at 31 :: at 16 (photo courtesy of my hs yearbook)



selfportraitchallenge.net

and also, i like cozy hats

the air is redolent of woodsmoke, heady and thick. it reminds me of why i am ever willing to let go of summer's languid warmth, of how deeply i love september.

growth

yesterday a spider scuttled back and forth on the ceiling above the dining room table where elle and i sat. i talked about him in placid tones, about his plump spider body and comically short legs, about how he couldn't seem to decide where he was going. elle's in the middle of a freak-out-at-the-mere-thought-of-a-bug stage, so i hoped our frank (what a great word, frank) discussion would ease her phobia a bit.

standing in the hallway a while later, she wanted to make play dough dinosaurs back at the table. she stood quietly for a moment, thinking about the spider.

"but actually," she told me, "i'm a little bit scared of him. and so i will get an animal to be brave."

i agreed that this was a sound plan, and she returned from her room armed with this furry guy:



in my opinion, mr. floppy ears seemed more liable to cuddle the spider than scare him off, but at any rate, his company bolstered elle's sense of safety.

and i was reminded that sometimes it's good to give her enough space and time to conquer her own monsters, that if i don't jump in with my preemptive mom-ness, she often arrives at a satisfying solution all on her own.

what a great kid.

deliciousness

two treats for y'all today.

first up is a tasty muffin recipe, and extra points to me for making something healthy for once. so all y'all who moan at length about how my cookies, pies, etc. are sabotaging your weight-loss efforts, here you go. :) and for upcoming posts featuring whinge-worthy recipes, please remember that there was that one time when i offered you the inside scoop to maple bran muffins.

maple bran muffins
3/4 c natural wheat bran
1/2 c milk
1/2 c maple syrup
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 c oil
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/3 c chopped walnuts

glaze:
1 T butter
1/2 c confectioners' sugar
1 T maple syrup

combine bran, milk, and maple syrup. stir in egg and oil; set aside. combine remaining muffin ingredients. add bran mixture, stirring until just moistened. divide batter into 12 greased muffin tins. bake at 400 for 18-20 mins. glaze: blend ingredients and spread over warm muffins.

these taste best fresh from the oven (and i'd recommend freezing if you're not going to eat them the very same day).



and now for the second treat (which is completely calorie-free):
august's booklist.

ARTEMIS FOWL eowin colfer
THE FIRST WIVES CLUB (warning: fairly crude at times) olivia goldsmith
BREAKING DAWN stephenie meyer
HP ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (again) jk rowling
TAMAR: A NOVEL OF ESPIONAGE, PASSION, AND BETRAYAL mal peet
THE LAST TIME THEY MET anita shreve
INKHEART cornelia funke
THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS ann brashares
THE LAST SUMMER OF YOU AND ME ann brashares
THE SECOND SUMMER OF THE SISTERHOOD ann brashares
ERAGON christopher paolini
WICKED LOVELY melissa marr

as is often the case, it's hard for me to single out a favorite from these titles. colfer's ARTEMIS and brashares' SISTERHOOD books are light, fun reads; WICKED LOVELY is engaging (if a bit overbearing in its sex-equality push).

TAMAR is a brilliant piece of work with one fatal flaw: you know early on (in the first 80 pages or so) exactly what the ending "revelation" will be, and thanks to the title, you suspect it will arrive there by treachery. so it's a bit like that moment after you've committed a household crime and your mum has said, "just wait till your father gets home!" and then sends you out to play in a golden afternoon. the day, by all accounts, is absolutely lovely but impossible to enjoy due to the personal cloud of impending doom hovering over you all the while.


so there you go: dietary and literary fiber all in one post. what more could you ask for? (okay, besides that? and that? never mind.) go forth and read.