List for Summer

Things I want to accomplish this summer:

Watch all the dvd's in the local library, going A-Z.  That starts us with Auntie Mame, I think.  (Any I have watched, I don't have to double up on.)

Sew up a baby quilt for Sam.

Sew up the orange/mighty girl ruffle sweater.

Transfer one of the potted orchids to a bark-wall planter (maybe make it magnetic, too.)

Walk with Pancake from my house to Circus of Books.  This may not work, depending on the heat of the days.

RV trip with Ron and my mom & dad.

What have you eaten?

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

(yes) next to those I have eaten...

1. Venison (yes)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros (yes)
4. Steak tartare (yes)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding (scary, no)
7. Cheese fondue (yes)
8. Carp
9. Borscht (yes)
10. Baba ghanoush (yes)
11. Calamari (yes)
12. Pho (yes)
13. PB&J sandwich (yes)
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (no, but alternate should be a stadium game hot dog!)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns (yes)
20. Pistachio ice cream (yes, sadly)
21. Heirloom tomatoes (yes, happily!)
22. Fresh wild berries (yes)
23. Foie gras (yes)
24. Rice and beans (yes)
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche (yes, and you must get the right kind! i can show you where to shop.)
28. Oysters (yes, raw and awesome!)
29. Baklava (yes)
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas (yes)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (yes!!)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut (yes)
35. Root beer float (yes)
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (?no thanks?)
37. Clotted cream tea (yes)
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo (yes)
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk (does cheese count?)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala (yes)
48. Eel (smoked eel is the best!)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (yes)
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear (yes)
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone (yes)
54. Paneer (yes)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (yes, and I won't do that again.)
56. Spaetzle (yes, and I may not do that again, either.)
57. Dirty gin martini (yes)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (yes)
59. Poutine (no, but I would like to try it)
60. Carob chips (yes, sadly)
61. S’mores (yes, gladly!)
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (ay! no!)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs (yes)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (yes, with lots of toppings!)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain (yes, yum!)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (yes)
71. Gazpacho (yes)
72. Caviar and blini (yes)
73. Louche absinthe (yes)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (yes)
78. Snail (yes)
79. Lapsang souchong (yes)
80. Bellini (yes)
81. Tom yum (yes)
82. Eggs Benedict (yes)
83. Pocky (yes, Yea for Pocky! I love strawberry the best.)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef (yes)
86. Hare (yes)
87. Goulash (yes)
88. Flowers (yes)
89. Horse (um, no.)
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (yes)
92. Soft shell crab (yes)
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish (yes)
95. Mole poblano (yes)
96. Bagel and lox (yes)
97. Lobster Thermidor (yes)
98. Polenta (yes, often!)
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (this one, was it John who went camping and they found a snake and one of his friend's dad cooked it. That should be the only acceptable way to eat snake. Not, for example, in a restaurant. But caught while camping and cooked over the campfire. I've not eaten it.)

I think shark and homemade ice cream should be on this list, but I guess it is just 100, so some of them would have to be traded off. Maybe horse and, I don't know, nettle tea?

she's sleeping in the middle of the living room floor. fuzzy red puppy on strips of hardwood flooring. Half on her side, half on her back with front paws together and legs butterflied. Looking back and she's moved. She must have known she was being talked about. She will sleep and sleep and sleep and then come over to me to lick my arm; to bite my shoe. She doesn't know how to pace herself-- it is all or nothing. She will dash around the backyard until she is exhausted and collapses panting and delighted on the outdoor couch. She sleeps and sleeps, waking up hungry and trusting that she will be fed. She knows she will eat, I turned my back on her yesterday and she stole the end two tablespoons of butter. Her only worries are not having both husband and I with her at all times or being separated from us. Happiness is when we collect the leash, she knows she will come along.

Forcast Today: Weather!

Thunder and lightening outside right now. Well, it's daytime so I can't see the lightening...

I told husband that it was to remind people in LA what weather is like and how glad we are it is sunny so often.

in response to Anne Jackson's boobie post

FlowerDust part three post here: http://www.flowerdust.net/2008/05/19/my-thoughts-on-boobies-part-3affecting-other-women/

Why is it that whenever I read Anne Jackson's blog I get really angry? That I feel so glad I no longer have a home church. She is a great writer, credible, engaging and vibrant. I feel so sad to see that she has to justify many of her statements, but I know why. I grew up in a church environment and had the mixed benefit of eight years of religious education. Somewhere along the line I crossed to the other side of the looking glass. Maybe in 2003? 2004? I guess it is not a coincidence that lately I have been reading 1 Corinthians. (8:13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.)

Seriously. Grow up. Sentiments derived from passages like these are used to hobble the Church. The way that they are inferred among "Christians" makes me sick. There is an air about it that goes beyond an attempt at creating a world that is safe, and into keeping people mired in something that is inappropriately childlike, 30- and 40-somethings men and women behaving as though they were still pre-teen girls trying to hold in the rapidly changing world around them. Let go. Make mistakes and learn.


My Statements:
I have spent waay to much of my life justifying things. If I have to justify myself for you, then neither of us are being honest with each other anymore. Where did we go?
I live in Hollywood, Home of the Boobies. I love it.
I have some quality ones and enjoy celebrating that confidence.
I do not feel it was the Devil who created my body.
I also know my shape will not last, and decided to enjoy looking like a woman.
When men see another man walk into a room with a beautiful woman (and beauty includes fixing yourself up and wearing clothes that fit) on his arm, they see that man as a success.
I have a lot of love and patience for others and because of this I refuse to let small-mindedness hold me and you back. You are not eight years old. Stop going out in public in oversize overalls and Winne the Pooh t-shirt! Do it and I'll agree to fix my hair.

We're having a dinner party soon. Want to come?

iGoogle says it is 74 degrees out. My Eddie Bauer keychain thermometer tells me it is closer to 95. Big difference.

I update about once a month, apparently. So here's the May post. Ha. (I do update in my head pretty frequently, but those don't seem to get typed out. If only I could stream from my stream-of-consciousness.)

When I was a young collegiate lass, I was interested in graduate work and what to do after my B.A. career. The head of the department suggested I look into archetypal psychology and folks like Carl Jung. He directed me toward the Pacifica Institute near Santa Barbara. I still think it's interesting stuff; the idea of unconscious genetic memories and such. Maybe someday I'll apply.

I recently found out about Alejandro Jodorowsky's work with psychomagic and psychogenology. His thought focuses a lot on the idea of Tarot, which is not a direction I am interested in outside of scholarly knowledge.

There is something fascinating in working with someone's psychological genealogy, and enabling them to be freed from any bad things handed down from parents and grandparents. The idea of genetic predisposition has been growing in popularity, eg: negative ones like alcoholism. But rather than succumb to this "genetic fate" why couldn't we work together to break this predisposition, and not pass it on to our kids? Kind of like the second law of thermodynamics in reverse. That things do not move from entropy or disaster, but to restoration. I mean, this world is a pretty messed up place sometimes, but wouldn't that be an excellent reason to have lots of children? The opportunity to have a really awesome family and some incredible kids that will make the world a better place? Who can in turn help others to create really good genetic histories.

To stray somewhat from the direction of this post, I did notice this bit of text from one of Pacifica Institute's seminar pages: "In light of the imminent dangers overshadowing the contemporary world, academic pursuits can no longer remain isolated."

What would this mean? What are these dangers? Ecological? Political? What I read from this is academic pursuits need to be more generally available because otherwise knowledge will be lost, throwing people into a fresh Dark Ages. And we've all been taught that the less the general populace is educated, the easier they are to be lead by superstition and sensationalism. Ha! Maybe that's why I don't watch the news. Seriously, though: what do they mean? Anybody? It sounds a little creepy.