cornfields and harry potter

another odd dream:

i was on vacation with my family, and we were renting some house at the beach. i woke up in the middle of the night and i was really hungry, so i got up to get a snack. i went outside and walked down the road to a bunch of huge cornfields, of course, and started eating field corn off the stalks. i heard someone coming through the field, and i got really scared so i crouched down to hide... and it was one of my sister's high school friends - amber beathard! it turns out i had wandered onto their farm. she sat there while i ate corn, then we started to see headlights in the field. then a car drove through the field RIGHT beside us! the engine was completely quiet, so it was a miracle it didn't run us over. a bunch of people were drive around the fields searching for me. so i dodged them and got out of the field. then i remembered that i had stashed my quidditch broom in the beathard's barn, so i hightailed it over there and found it. then flew back to the beach house. and i think i might have actually been harry potter at some point in the dream.

wackadoo dreams

okay, i dream a lot. and usually my dreams are a little strange. so since a) i have been neglecting this blog and need content, and 2) i can't think of anything to say... i think i'll just list a few of my recent dreams. i'd like to remember them in the future. i might just make this a regular feature.

last week - friday night, maybe? i dreamt that i was neda ulaby (whose voice, let it be documented here, drives me up a wall), or maybe i wasn't her but i could see through her eyeballs as if i was her. in any case, her father was a terrorist, and she killed him as he slept - by dropping BBs into his ear, one by one, until his ear canal collapsed and the BBs flooded his brain.

there were some screwy dreams the other night, but i JUST NOW forgot them as i tried to type.

last night i dreamt that i busted scott for taking peni$ enlargement pills that he bought on the internet. the way i found out was that i saw a text message on his phone that he sent to someone, saying "the pills work! just waiting for the last couple of inches!" ??

i think i like this new feature. you? feel free to share in the comments.

austin, TX, here i come!

i'm heading to austin next week, for the annual meeting of the society of american archivists. i am jazzed because i've always heard such great things about austin... but not so jazzed because it is supposed to be several ticks above ONE HUNDRED DEGREES all next week.

just kill me now.

it was hot enough when it was in DC a few years back. but this. this.... i just can't imagine slogging around in that.

i've also been advised to bring my bathing suit because there is a pool at the hotel, and because of the always-62-degree water at barton springs. but what about running into my boss whilst wearing a bathing suit? what about averting my eyes from speedo-sporting colleagues? that makes my stomach hurt, just thinking about it. archivists, including me, are not generally known for their ripped and trim physiques.

in other news, the garden is thriving! photographic evidence here. and my parents were here for a nice visit last weekend - we hit the mid-city dog days of summer sidewalk sale (we stumbled upon it by accident last summer and made a point to go again this year) and the national aboretum, out on new york ave/US50. i got an early-early birthday present! a chiminea! i can't WAIT to have cozy fires in the backyard this fall. and winter. and next spring! and always.

due to my travel craziness, i've had to cancel my appearance at the MPHS class of '94 reunion this weekend. i was actually looking forward to it, but alas. not this time. i'll have to hook up with my homies when i am home in october instead....

and that's all i've got. now i'm off to wish it wasn't too late to mail-order a full-body victorian swim dress in time for next week...

hot or not

we've been awfully spoiled this summer. well, at least all of us in the DC area. we've hardly had any re-e-e-e-a-lly hot days at all. at all! as in, i can't even remember the last time it was in the 90s. and i sincerely doubt we've broken 100. for the most part, we've drifted around in the upper 70s and lower 80s. lows in the 60s at night. it was even TOO CHILLY to go swimming the other day. in july!

which sounds nice.

sounds awful nice.

sounds like a cool lake in canada, without the black flies in your nose.

but instead, it has made me a HUGE WIMP. i just went on a walk outside with a co-worker. not long, maybe 20 minutes tops. and i have sweat through my shirt, my ass is damp and my hair is dripping sweat into my eyes. it's only 88 out there, people! i should be ashamed of myself.

fun weekend, and other stuff to report

i had a pretty fun weekend, how about you?

Friday was spent by myself at home - which might sound boring, unless you are a homebody like me who likes some extended periods of alone time. sometime during the course of the evening, i also snacked on some pine nuts left over from making pesto, and had some of that pesto for dinner. somewhere in that mix lurked a rancid nut that had been sitting around too long - because i now have pine mouth! i had just bought the nuts from the bulk section of Yes! organic market, only days prior. i should have known better, because as much as i like Yes! - you really have to watch them on expired food and the bulk bins can often be kind of dodgy (i found what appeared to be rodent turds in the bulk popcorn bin once, and all their chicken was DAYS past due and still in the meat case, and their beets often sit in the produce section until they turn to liquid blobs. and god knows there aren't enough pine-nut-eaters in brookland to make sure the bulk bin has a good rate of turnover. i'm sure those nuts had bin in that bin for months... but i digress. i have PINE MOUTH, dammit! it was the worst on saturday. everything tasted like gasoline/crushed aspirin/bug spray - especially coffee or anything bready, and my mouth would occasionally suffer a pine-nut aftertaste at random times. sunday was still bad, but getting better. today is much better, but still not all gone. lessons learned - if pine nuts are cheap, it's probably for a good reason; only buy pine nuts from italy, as the ones from other countries (especially china, for some reason) sometimes contain cheaper quality, they are more lax about refrigerating in the warehouses, and are riskier for pine mouth. great. that is, unless you like teh taste of gasoline or sharpie markers - then by all means, go to the brookland Yes! and gorge yourself.

Saturday, we went to Bengie's Drive In, up near Baltimore - which boasts the largest screen in the U.S! As usual, it was a fun time. but insanely late, so i didn't shamble into bed until after 3:30 am. AM! that is basically unforgiveable. before the show, we went to toys-r-us and i got the re-released Mastermind game. which SUXX for many reasons that i won't go into, and i will now be stalking old versions on ebay.

Therefore, i slept late on Sunday before heading over to Courtney's to paint trim in her bedroom.... which killed my back, and i knew it was killing my back even as i did it... but i am obsessive when it comes to trim work and couldn't stop myself. sick, i know. but then i went swimming! in a pool! for the first time this summer! and it was so so good. i wish i could have a pool in my yard. but alas, that would be a terrible idea. too small, and would be filled with urine and syringes and dead squirrels within the hour of installation. *sigh*

i have a busy several weeks approaching. i hate busy.

makes me wanna hoop

So I made a hula hoop.

For myself.

Scott asked me what in the heck I was going to do with the PVC tubing I bought from the home despot – when I said I was going to make myself a hula hoop, he laughed. I told him I was serious, and he laughed some more. So I said, “no really, I’m making a hula hoop.” And then he chuckled merrily and shook his head.

He came home from work yesterday and there was a hula hoop in the living room. He said, “oh! So you were serious about that hula hoop thing!” and he wonders why I say he doesn’t listen to me...

I hooped my ass off yesterday afternoon (well, not really, I’m more aiming to hoop my gut off) while I was home early from work. I hooped through Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and part of an episode of Clean House. Which, looking back, might have been too much for my first time of hooping since elementary school. My back was k-i-l-l-i-n-g me last night and I have little bruises all over my waist. But it was worth it! It is supposed to be a good workout for gut and lower back. Lord knows my flabby gut and weak back could use some work. and it's really pretty fun.

You can buy exercise hoops online for $20-$30+tax+shipping, but I got the supplies at the store for less than $10. And that is good enough for me. it was put together and ready to go in under 10 minutes flat.

The first couple of tries at the hoop resulted in the hoop crashing dramatically and immediately to the floor. I knocked a candle off of the coffee table a few times. Scared the hell out of the cats more than once. The first, oh, say, 300 times it fell to the floor it smashed into the pointy part of my ankle bone on the way down. God, you know how that hurts. I said curses (motherFUCKERohgoddamnSHITballspleasegodhelpmeohfuck) so loud and convincingly that i’m certain my pleas were heard at the gates of heaven. i was afraid to look, because it hurt so sharply that i thought the skin over the pointy bone had been cleaved open and that my ankle guts would be exposed. And just like when you bite your lip once, and proceed to chomp down on the same place over and over and over…. Well, it’s the same with pointy ankle bones, apparently. I smashed the bejeezums out of my ankles, then with tears in my eyes I tied dishtowels around my ankles like bulky, super-short leg warmers resumed hoopin’ the night away.

to make a hula hoop of your very own, all you need is some PVC tubing (not the pipes - it has to be flexible enough to bend into a stiff circle), a connector (from the same aisle at lowes depot), and some jazzy colored electrical tape to cover it. and that's it! i think there are calculations for how big around your hoop should be, based on your height. but i wasn't that technical. the tubing came precut in lengths of 10 feet, so that's what i got. i am just under 5'8" and the finished hoop comes just to my belly button when i stand it in front of me. that seems about right to me. go make one. you won't regret it.

Spring!

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

[Today, Billy Collins]

Wow, so spring is here. Finally. (i've been away for quite some time, but we won't talk about that. let's just pretend otherwise for now.) here in DC, the weather has been skipping back and forth between spring and crap for a while now - mostly springy, though. daffodils have come and are almost gone, packing their little hatboxes and heading up north where spring is still sleeping. forsythia was a flash in the pan and the flame is gone. cherry blossoms have peaked and their confetti is sprinkling all down the river. next up will be azaelas and lilacs and other bloomy sisters. i was in ohio last weekend and spring was just arriving there. it was nice! i got to see spring twice.

wedding stuff is chugging right along. right now the pace is pleasant, if not a little skippy. soon it will be a freight train, bordering on derailment, so i'd better enjoy the semi-relaxation while i've got it.

this would be a good time to make a list of things i still need to do. but i'm afraid i would throw up once i saw it all written down. so let's think of other things!

like the vegetarian meatloaf i made the other day! it was DANG good. i didn't do the vegan route - i used the egg that the original recipe called for. and i didn't have hazelnuts so i used a mix of walnuts and cashews. also i used less nuts and more lentils, because the thought of 2 cups of nuts scared me badly. and i slathered it with ketchup for the last 15 minutes of baking. it was so. good. i just had leftovers for lunch. my only thought was that it was a little crumbly - i might add a second egg next time. and i might add a little minced green pepper, since i like that in my regular meatloaf. try it! i'm serious. it is very delicious. i think scott ate 3 slices.

in other news:

- i've been watching american idol. it's a little embarrassing, but hey. we have a DVR now, so it's a lot less painful when you can fast-forward through the crap. and i hope adam wins.

- my seedlings are doing....well, they're doing okay. they were great a few days ago, but a few have mysteriously died or disappeared. i believe the cats are to blame. nilsson must have developed a taste for seedlings last year.

- i'm going to be an aunt AGAIN! well, an aunt still, anyway. or is it again? i'm not sure. but either way, jessie and david are having another baby!

- i think the Death March is out this year. we didn't register in time, and all the spots are filled. refresh your memory on last years' walk here.

- and that's it for now.

ta ta.