I guess I have a rich fantasy life.

I dropped by my own blog today, and was shocked not to find a bunch of recent fabulously interesting posts. I pretty much have a running commentary about my riveting life constantly in my head; imagining I have my own camera crew like I was on Ladette to Lady or ANTM or something. Dear God!! Speaking of Tyra, did anyone watch America's Next Top Model last night when Tyra said "I go pee pee mamma, I go pee pee." (!!!!) Holy Crap! Or is that Wholly Crap? Regardless - Astounding! Anyhow, yes back to me. So I was surprised it had been so long since my last entry. I thought I would make one. So here you go.

Geeze Louise

I caught the worst cold last Tuesday. I didn't know I was sick until Wednesday morning when I woke up with shards of glass in my throat (the WORST sore throat I have had for a long time). I say I caught the cold on Tuesday because at Drawing Group I was Not In A Good Mood. Of course it didn't help that everyone was ANNOYING. (Hi Drawing friends! no offense meant - ! I was SICK.) I hope I didn't pass my disease on to anyone else.

Anyway, even before I decided to be SERIOUSLY UNHAPPY at drawing, I had decided that three plus years of drawing group was enough. I announced that April 24th, 2007 will be the last day of drawing at Gallery 110. So. It was fun, and I am happy I did it, but it is time for it to be over.

Next subject: I have one of those $15 cell phones. We got it when we were on vacation a couple of weeks ago so we could check in with the cat sitters. I wrote the phone number down someplace, god only knows where, and now I don't know what the number is. I have pushed a bunch of buttons on the phone, but I get frustrated/bored before I find where the little electronic demon keeps its number. I have no idea who I would give the number to anyway. I hate talking on the phone. I don't talk on the phone at home, why would I want to in public? harumph, my grey hairs are just bristling.

Spring Break

Scott and I went on a roadtrip this past week, we didn't have any certain destination in mind other than "California-ish" (although i was hoping to make it to Big Sur - no such luck). For part of it, the weather was pretty bad, but all in all it was a beautiful and relaxing trip.

We spent the longest time in San Francisco, and did some touristy things - drove down the twisty part of Lombard - and some not so touristy things like an extensive tour of the SF dog parks. I am always surprised at how pretty San Francisco is, and leave wanting to move there.

But my garden is so pretty right now, I guess I will stay here. (even though the french drain has mysteriously stopped working and we have to dig it up and replace it. It's just one thing after another.)

In the Garden

So on Monday it poured all day. This is remarkable only in that I had
planned to spend the day in the garden. Eventually I decided to go out
in the rain anyhow. I got totally covered in mud, and so did the dog,
but Look!! I now have a garden path down which I can easily be led.

The stones themselves are really pretty, they have mica in them so they are sparkly, and also beautiful rusty-red flecks and streaks.

Here is an action shot of the path:


King is not doing it right, he is supposed to have all his feet on the
stones, but the path is still new, and I think he will get the hang of
it. But still, it is not that hard.

And now the money shot:

.
the path leads right by the current Garden Star, my Bleeding Heart, Dicentra spectabilis

XXIII. IN THE GARDEN.

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad, --
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.

Emily Dickinson

good dog

please ignore all the junk laying around the yard, we are a construction zone, after all...

Ladette to Lady

Oh my god, one of my very favorite TV shows Ladette to Lady is casting for Spring 2007.

It's a series from ITV1 but in the states it airs on The Sundance Channel and is about taking eight British binge-drinking floozies, and putting them through Eggelston Hall Finishing School. Here is a sample of some of these delightful girls:



Seriously, these girls are vile. I thought I was wild when I was in my twenties, but no.

The school's teachers are every bit as prissy and nit-picky as you would imagine (but in a good way).

Ironically enough, for as exacting as the teachers are, the website is riddled with mistakes. And no, I don't mean "Colour" instead of "color" I mean:

Iin addition to preparing for the Ball...

and

Wearing dresses they have made Eggleston Hall...

Seriously, do these people need a web designer / content manager?
Because I could move to London and help them out with that. No problem.

Maybe I should just apply to be on the show. Maybe they wouldn't notice I was a forty-something married lady who falls asleep at 10:01 pm.

But I would love to take the classes they have the ladettes take in the show: deportment, elocution,(whatever) sewing, flower arranging, etiquette and cookery.

Here is the schedule for the reruns of the new season.

Fantasy

I got an orange tree Peony this year, I am so excited about it, it is going to be just gorgeous....

Someday.

Patience...........

Peonies take at least one year to bloom at all, and three to four to bloom reliably. This is what it looks like right now.

On a "I want my immediate gratification NOW" note, I got this excellent new Urban Compost Tumbler Yay! I don't know why this one is Urban as opposed to, what? Suburban? Are they calling it "Urban" because it is BLACK?!?!? I am just asking is all.

Look!

The bedroom
Originally uploaded by yvettef.

Scott has been working really hard on the bedroom, and we are so close to being done. The floor is solid bamboo, and the "wardrobe system" - Ikea, of course.


This closet is just huge, I can hardly stand it.


I have a horn collection, mostly deer, but some mountain goat and antelope, too. They will go on this wall.

beer sale

beer sale
Originally uploaded by yvettef.

Right to the point.

aeration

aeration

I have been having a really hard time lately. The wind storm, power outage, Jake's death, snow, ice, the horrible mess that the afore mentioned storms made of the yard... and my mom's illness. I feel like I can't complain about mom being sick, because that is hers - I feel like I am stealing her story or trying to make her sickness about me.

But part of it is about me, this hugely impacts my life, too. M&D are going to Arizona to visit family for a couple of weeks -- I was over at mom's house this last weekend when she told me she was upset because she was going to have to put her old cat, JD down. The boarding facility they use had gone out of business, and she just couldn't inconvenience anyone to come over twice a day to feed her. I was shocked, but suddenly realized that she also has had enough. And one more thing to take care of was just one thing too many. I told her I would take JD while she was gone. JD will have to stay in the basement, because my cats would freak out, but that is ok. M&D brought JD over yesterday, and she is a wonderful little cat. I am glad she is here.

I have a hard time trusting people, so I just don’t ask for help. I can’t trust that they won’t take my vulnerability, my moment of opening up to them and twist it around, or use it against me later. This has happened more than once, after all*. But I guess what I need to learn from this little episode is to know when it is ok to ask for a little help. But that is so much easier said than done. I am not sure that lesson can sink in.

*Yeah, I know I am no saint.

Ok, I have HAD IT.

More snow on the truck

So, more snow today. I am so tired of the weather-related drama. God knows I have enough drama in my regular life, without worrying if I can make it home.

these things could kill someone
There are Icecicles on my house. And I am not happy about it.

Witch Hazel in snow

Witch Hazel in snow
Originally uploaded by yvettef.

Here is the photo of the day, for yesterday January 10th. We got about six or seven inces of snow.

It took me an hour and a half to get home, or more accurately, to the bottom of the hill. I had to steer my truck into a snow bank to avoid hitting a jackknifed bus.

Then it took another hour to get the truck chained up, to drive the last block and get up our driveway.

It is pretty, though.

I know you are but what am I?

I attract the crazies. I know you think you do, but no, it is me.

I went out to grab a sandwich at a local shop for lunch; they have one of those "stand in one line and whichever employee is available next will help you" situations. So I am standing there waiting for someone to finish helping the people in front of me, so I can order my regular "3-cheesesandwich on rye, only except for three different cheeses can I just have the Havarti cheese"? Yes I realize that reduces the cheese by one-third, but no one actually needs 1 1/2 inches of cheese on a sandwich.

So anyhow, I am waiting there when a woman two people behind me says "Well I think I am just going to go ahead of you if you aren't going to order anything."

beat

I reply "I am just waiting for someone to be available to help me."

She continues to shoulder her way to the front of the line, looking at me like I am stupid. Now I know I work in Pioneer Square, home of the professionally crazy (aka our homeless veterans suffering fromPTS ) but she was not one of those. This was a Mom looking lady who can afford to have someone else cut and color her hair (in other words a 40-something woman pushing 200lbs with an expensive blond foil job). She stands in line in front of me, trying to get the attention of the harried teenager in the clutches of The Lunch Rush.

The woman behind me (and in front of he line-jumper just moments before) said "I guess she is really hungry."

So while the Line Jumping Lady (LJL)was distracted giving her order to someone who was busy helping someone else, another guy behind the counter took my order. I wanted to give him a little hug, I think he observed this whole thing out of the corner of his eye, and decided the LJL could just wait.

The lunch counter staff helped me and the lady behind me and the one behind HER before LJL. By the time they got to her she was absolutely red and vibrating with anger. I don't know why she stuck around. I would be surprised if she didn't get a little spit in her Turkey Club. You don't want to piss off underpaid teens who have access to your food. Everyone knows that.

bodhi asleep

bodhi asleep
Originally uploaded by yvettef.

This is the 1/2/07 photo of the day. I can't help it, I love my cats. Since Jake died (yeah, I am still on about that), she has become much more relaxed and happy. He was kind of a jerk to her.

Jake used to sleep right by my head, and I still find myself in the middle of the night moving my pillow down to make room. Last night for the first time Bodhi curled up there.

(Obviously this is not her on the bed, it is her on the underside of an upside-down chair, of course.)

This is already getting old

Ok, so I have already resorted to the "I have a lot of work to do" post. But really. that is all that is going on with me.

Have a Happy New Year, you all. I won't post again for a few days, I imagine.


This is what it looks like from the other direction.

12/28/06 - Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel is one of my very favorite plants. It's spidery yellow petals with the vermillion florette in the center is all the more beautiful becase it blooms in the winter. This photo is of a fantastic tree in waterfall park. It is just covered in blossoms. I really needed this.

lichen 12-27-06

Inspired by photojojo's a photo a day post, I am going to try this. I tend to have a "follow through" problem with these sorts of things, but I think I would like to see the evolution of what interests me over a year.

I am still pretty shook up over the death of my cat, and was appalled to find out I only have 24 pictures of him, and those are too small to print. I was only thinking of keeping them "polite" for on-line viewing, I never realized how important it would suddenly be to have a small physical representation of him.

I took a ton more photos than that of course, I just didn't bother to save the ones I didn't think were good. I didn't know they all were good.

It makes me all the more sad that I forgot to take my camera over to my sister's house for Christmas this year. I don't have very many pictures of my mother, either.

Thank you, Jake.

Jake was a funny guy
Originally uploaded by yvettef.

My dear cat Jake was put to sleep on December 18th.

He came to us as a two-year old stray, who had been what they call an "intact male" for those first two years. He never did get over being a territorial tom.

Four years ago, he tangled with a car, and 36 hours later somehow made it home. His jaw and cheekbone were broken, he had broken ribs, and lost an eye. We patched him back together, and through it all he was the most loving, happy, purr-filled cat you have ever met.

Nothing got Jake down. He was one of those perpetually happy, hapless beings, tripping his way through life and into emergency rooms.

Scott and i joked that he cost more than caviar. The last time we figured it out it was well over $400 per pound. And that was before the last surgery .

Finally all the scrapping caught up with him, and he was infected with FIV. While there are tons of websites out there assuring you that it is not necessarily a death sentence, they did not know Jake. Jake would not be kept inside, and didn't just yowl to be let out, he went into stealth mode, and just slunk out without anyone noticing ever. He just suddenly would not be in the house. FIV is most easily transmitted from cats fighting - and i agonized over perhaps my cat infecting another person's cat.

Not to mention my other cats.

Finally on Sunday he got another infected wound. His immune system was not working at all and he had a terrible infection that would not heal, even after surgery and two rounds of antibiotics. He was in a considerable amount of pain.

He would not stay inside, he was miserable in the house. he could very well infect the other cats. There was the stress of yet another surgery, his fifth by my count.

Jake loved to be carried, but only on your left shoulder. Scott and Jake loved each other and he often sat on Scott's lap purring so loud you could hardly hear the radio. But Jake was "my cat". As soon as i came home from work, Jake would meow and meow until I picked him up. (his nickname was "Screamer") If he was in the house, he was either on my lap or asking to be held. His favorite toy was one of the long fronds of a palm tree I have in a large pot. He had an enormous love for us and we for him.

Thank you, Jake. We will see you around next time.

Drawing Marathon

detail-interior

I participated in a two-day workshop, eight hours of drawing each day. I really enjoyed myself, it was the first time I was able to really stretch out and do extended observational drawing since grad school. That was in 1998. Wow. The time. It is flying.

I can't believe it's not blogging

I had such high hopes starting this blog, but I see it has been over a month since I updated it. It is odd, because I think about blogging all the time. I see a plant growing out of the side walk and I think "I should take a picture of that and post it on my blog; then make some startlingly poignant observation about perseverance and beauty in the midst of adversity" or some other hackneyed observation. See? See what I just did there? I started with an idea to do something and then promptly talked myself into not doing it because it was not original enough or smart enough or whatever.

So, without further ado, on with the post: Scott has been really going gangbusters on the living room, and it is much further along than this, but here is a picture.


Yes, folks you are correct, the walls are GREEN. As I said, the living room is much further along now, with the window sills done and door framed in. The yellow of the pine looks great. I guess I will just have to post again soon, so you, dear reader, can see what I am talking about.

So, even when I do blog, I blog about something I didn't do and don't have a picture of. And so far, no links. Well, except to my own flickr site, and how egotistical is that? So apropos of nothing, Link!